So you say you want a revolution

[Mythsaje]

"The peasants are revolting."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"No, really. They've got torches and pitchforks and they're approaching the castle gates."


Do they really think they can continue stealing our future from us indefinitely? Apparently they do. They think they can sit behind their gates in their ivory towers and suck on expensive drinks while we toil away at meaningless jobs simply to provide for them in the way to which they've grown accustomed?

Do they think that the rising cost of fuel and the rising cost of food won't cause fallout? When people are scrambling to feed their families, they're going to forget about those who sit in the catbird seat and look down on our petty difficulties with casual disinterest?

The American people fall too easily into complacency. When things are good, or at least tolerable, they'll ignore the things that are setting the stage for future problems. They live in the now, mesmerized by their televised sports and their reality shows, forgetting for the moment that nothing in the "goddamn noisy box" actually reflects real life.

Real life is going on in places they do not tread. Decisions are being made that affect their lives in the most basic ways and they have NO say in it. They don't even know it's happening. The corporate media won't tell them...not until it's over and done and it's too late. Their only hope for grasping the reality of the situation is here, in the electronic hinterlands.

They want us to be fighting one another for the scraps they leave us as they sit in comfort. I think they underestimate how angry people are going to be over what has to be seen as a Great Betrayal.

They've fed on us, these economic cannibals--gotten fat and indolent on OUR lives, and will try to escape to their refuges before their chickenhawks come home to roost. But when the people realize what has been done to them, there might not be anyplace far enough away to hide. When the security moms realize that they have no security, when the NASCAR dads realize there will never again be enough fuel for the cars to circle that track, what do they honestly think the end result will be.

Fury. Rage. And a hunger for payback SO deeply ingrained that safety from the angry masses might be unattainable.

It's time they gave us back our country, and take back from the cannibals what they've taken from us. In the end, that's their only recourse. Because of the Republican policies of the past decade or more, our economy teeters on the edge of disaster. Sure, they'll try to blame it on the Democrats.

But Americans may be lazy, and far too happy with their own comfort, but only a small percentage of them are completely clueless. There has NEVER, in the history of the world, been a more comfortable bunch of people. Take that away and they're going to realize who to blame: The oil companies, the car companies, the credit card companies, the banks, and, above all, the politicians who didn't protect them like they promised to.

It ain't going to be pretty.

[mdmc]

1. I think I'll just die

I don't have any guns and my health is weak.
Still, :kick:R

[liberal4truth]

2. Thats just an old Beatles song. The "revolution" isnt coming, ever.

This isn't 1776 any longer...

[originalpckelly]

4. The traditional armed revolution is not only illegal...it would be wrong.

To truly win, the vast majority must be reasoned with, not propagandized into believing something is true, but on their own coming to that conclusion.

[Mythsaje]

7. Wrong? What's going on NOW is "wrong."

And, no, two wrongs don't make a right. But if the people see everything they worked for, everything they thought they were entitled to, slipping away, I'm not sure there's a force on Earth that can stop them.

And legality and morality won't have a damned thing to do with it.

[mac2]

9. If a revolution does come there will be chaos in the streets

You can't predict how it will turn out.

That's why we have elections to secure peaceful turn over in a democracy. Both parties refuse to play it the honest way and ignore the voters almost asking for it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Remind me exactly what was 1776... a walk in the park and kumbaya?

changes, especially dramatic changes usually come at the tip of a bayonet. and here is a huge free clue, base on history

NO VIOLENT ARMED REVOLUTION IS EVER LEGAL.

Sorry for the loud voice, but readying a little history might be in order, after all those in charge will do all they can to keep the peasants quiet.

[rhett o rick]

19. A revolution is illegal???? Oh my. Isn't that the point?? nm

[Mythsaje]

6. You think that if we sink into another depression

all these complacent, comfortable Americans won't be pissed? They're not the same kind of people who suffered under the first depression. They have a HELL of a lot more to lose and they're going to be a hell of a lot angrier about it.

If you don't think so, you're underestimating the situation as much as the PTBs.

[BrotherBuzz]

10. For What It's Worth

That's just an old Buffalo Springfield song.

For What It's Worth
by Buffalo Springfield

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

This Isn't Kansas Anymore, Toto

[Mythsaje]

13. I've done that song in Karoake a time or two... n/t

[kenny blankenship]

3. They've been stealing our future so long they thought it was theirs the whole time

They drank your milkshake down without you knowing it, and the fact that nobody stopped them assured them they had a perfect right to it. They truly believe that that's the way it's supposed to be. They think it's all theirs - whatever they can cheat and steal away from others. Adding to the scariness is that a whole generation now has grown up since the Reagan Revolution knowing nothing else.

[mac2]

5. You may think all Americans are "comfortable" but they aren't

since Bush came to power.

[Mythsaje]

8. I don't think all Americans are comfortable

I know damn well that many aren't. But those that are will be really pissed if they lose it in large enough numbers to make a difference.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. K&R

[RFKJrNews]

12. So you say you want a peaceful revolution

well, you know...we'd all love to see the plan.

Some of us are doing what we can.

Here's one way to bring `em to justice:
http://rfkin2008.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/op-ed-bush-and-cheney-should-be-in-handcuffs/

[davidthegnome]

14. You're right

It won't be pretty, it'll be a damn nightmare. If we think the civil war was bad - imagine what a second one, with modern weaponry could do. Where would the lines be drawn? Would there be any clear distinction between friend and foe?

A bloody massacre from start to finish, and who would be left standing? Not just a revolutionary war, but a civil war - an idealogical war. The far left and the far right would be just as quick to fight each other as the government officials that have displeased them. Our Country is so divided that we'd have a million different groups with a million different goals - almost impossible to organize into one movement.

Do I want a revolution, considering the reality of the situation? No. Do I think it will eventually come anyway? Yes. Even in this small, conservative community in Northern Maine, people are talking about it, some quietly, some loudly (after a few too many drinks) in bars. If they're talking about it here, then I have no doubt that millions are thinking it.

I'm all but convinced that a violent revolution, in the near future, is inevitable. It is something that goes beyond party lines, we are living in a Tale of Two Cities - and one thing almost everyone can agree on - is that we're pretty pissed off.

[jmg257]

15. Bingo! It would be a civil war before.(or while) there is revolution. Both sides

want change, but for totally opposite reasons.

[ProgressIn2008]

16. I agree, it may well not be pretty - part of it is the very framing of radical

and revolutionary the basics. Health care. Food prices. Education. Roof over your head. Care for your aging parent. Livable wages. It shouldn't be radical to talk about corporate personhood, big money in the political and election process, powerful lobbyists from credit card companies, banks and oil/energy companies, media consolidation, insurance lobbyists -- these are not radical issues, to my mind. They're sensible issues, basic to the fabric of our society, and we've allowed them to be framed as radical. Kucinich is considered a nutcase, and he's simply not. It's not nutty to point to the bloated defense budget and demand universal health care.

What's nuts is failing to point out the ways this country is sick. What people go through with the "health care industry" alone is sick.

Good post. I'm angrier by the day. Time to wake up.

[bdamomma]

17. I've heard this reasoning or explanation so many times

that until it happens to you then you will rise up. Or when we have nothing to loose we will rise up, but something has to give? And isn't way past the time to get back what is ours. Just my opinion.

[rhett o rick]

20. It is a nice dream of rising up for freedom and equality, but it won't happen.

Even if it did, it would play directly into the hands of the corporatists. The corporatists would like nothing better than to have half this country fighting the other half. And I'm betting the split would be close to 50-50. Think of all the idiots that voted for Bush in 2004. Whose side would they be on? On the side of the rich, powerful, big boys or the poor and intellectuals? As someone mentioned above, it would be a civil war and when over the middle class will be dead.

There are not castles to storm. And Halliburton's head office isn't in the US any longer.

At one time the middle class had some leverage but being a large source of labor, but no longer. Corporations are leaving the US work force as fast as they can. Our only leverage is our pocketbooks, and that won't last much longer. I wish a revolution would work. But we would be fighting the police and the National Guard and probably the Army. Their side would have all the resources.

[warren pease]

21. There's a lot here I agree with, but...

I honestly disagree with the claim that: "But Americans may be lazy, and far too happy with their own comfort, but only a small percentage of them are completely clueless."

I'd reverse it and maintain that, by the time Saturday morning cartoons, public (mis)education, pop culture, peer group socialization, mass media, PR, advertising, higher education, the awful world of corporate work and debt slavery got through with them, they no longer know up from down unless they drop an anvil and see which way it goes.

That's not only the end result of continuous exposure to the American dream machine; it's the intended outcome. When tens of millions of people live in a mythological netherworld of false promises, crushing social and financial obligations and unattainable expectations, they're going to be way too busy and self-absorbed to worry about the FCC's latest ruling to allow more media consolidation or the Iraqi civilian body count or the actual issues behind the candidates' smiles and waves.

I don't know if they're clueless because they're distracted, under-informed, undereducated, predisposed to meaningless idiocy or must plain dumb... It doesn't really matter anyway because the outcome is the same: a marginalized, disconnected, alienated and powerless citizenry that spends too much time waiting for instructions and almost no time thinking for themselves.

The other premise I'm not too comfortable with is: "Take that away and they're going to realize who to blame: The oil companies, the car companies, the credit card companies, the banks, and, above all, the politicians who didn't protect them like they promised to."

Oh, that this were always the case and that people understood who's screwing them and why. But that's part of the genius of the elite, and of the public opinion manipulation experts they hire to take the heat off.

Thanks to their gentle persuasion, we learn that there's no such thing as class in America, and anyone who claims there is must be a flaming lefty trade unionist with a grudge against the rich. And who could take issue with those exceptional souls who've managed to parlay their superior skills and business acumen into vast personal fortunes, most of which they give away through charities and foundations that reflect the goodness and decency of these very special people. Excuse me while I lose my breakfast. :puke:

Pardon me. Moving on...

We also learn that this year in particular it's the immigrants' fault for taking all our good jobs -- like digging ditches and picking fruit and getting murdered by toxic pesticides sprayed all over them from a crop duster.

Or it's the damn environmentalists who are choking economic progress with their insane concerns for spotted owls and lizards and some useless fish. Don't forget the army of shrill feminazis and their tireless quest to emasculate the American male, taking away the aggressiveness and drive and spirit of competition that's made the US the number one most wonderfulest country in the whole gosh-darn capitalist world.

In case we've forgotten some of the most basic stuff, we need to re-internalize all this vital American dogma, too: Taxes on the rich are killing our competitiveness. They hate us for our freedoms. This is the land of equal opportunity for all. Free trade is an economic godsend. Guns don't kill people. The justice system protects the powerless from the powerful. TV news tells the truth. America always acts internationally out of benign motives. Gay marriage is destroying the family. The war on terror is making us safer. The bible is the literal word of god. The policeman is our friend. The liberal media is poisoning this country with secular humanist lies. Brown people are disposable. Global climate change is a leftist fantasy. Evolution is just another a creation myth. Socialized medicine is evil. Capitalism lifts all boats. The rich are rich because they're morally and intellectually superior. We must preserve our precious bodily fluids. ;-)

And anybody who doesn't live by these axioms can just get the hell out of our devout christian nation. You know what happens when we let these counter-culture, gloom-and-doom, nay-saying, America-hating unpatriotic parasites distract us from our divinely directed mission as guardians of the free world? Yup. The terrorists win.

So by the time all that's settled and the proper belief systems are firmly installed and operational, I don't think there's enough room left between their ears for the real villains who, as you correctly state, are: "The oil companies, the car companies, the credit card companies, the banks, and, above all, the politicians who didn't protect them like they promised to." We could toss in for-profit medicine, big pharma, the prison-industrial complex, all war contractors and a few dozen other examples of the very worst humankind has to offer, but that'll do for now.


wp

[blues90]

22. I have been listening to Malloy shows from dec 2003

Just for reference to see how things were befor bush stole the second election and to see what people were saying then about jobs and job loss .

It's amazing how similar it is today . There were the stores each year dropping in sales and people losing jobs and could find a job with a college education as well as out sourcing spinning out of control .

Well we are worse of now . I road it out until the end of 2004 working for one of the big three car dealers in the service dept and it took 11 months to find another job which ws longer hours for half the pay and I was laid off after 4 1/2 months .

Now it's even worse , it will reach a point where many people will either lose their job or end up making even less money with the rise of fuel and food costs many who have two jobs will burn out .

There is no doubt the we are left with service jobs of low pay , poverty pay and who even does make it out of college good luck finding work .

Somethings got to give as this will continue to get worse . We either have to develope tent cities or communes to keep goingr die trying .

I see no hope turning this around or jobs coming back . Detroit is screwed , the auto industry is screwed . manufacturing is all but gone .

Perhaps people will be forced to revolt with whatever means they have left .

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. Compared with most industrialised countries, Americans have cheap fuel and food

What you have is expensive healthcare, and higher education. I think you're dreaming if you think a revolution, armed or not, will produce cheaper food and fuel. In the short term, both would become far more expensive - but it's unlikely that any long term change would reduce their prices lower than the present. It also won't be 'security moms' and 'NASCAR dads' in any 'revolution' - those are the relatively comfortable, who have choices in their lives. It's those on the poverty line who have little to lose who make up revolutions.

[Mythsaje]

24. If shit goes downhill at the rate it's going

it'll be those comfortable people who are the most pissed off about it all. The people already struggling are accustomed to it, unfortunately. The comfortable middle class will NOT be.