4 stages of a revolution - might be of interest to Cheney, King Louis, and that Sadr fellow ->

[msongs]

http://usiweb.usi.edu/students/gradstudents/m_n_o/mcclellan_s/4%20Stages%20of%20Revolution.html

I. Incubation Stage (Prodromal)
A. Intellectuals desert the existing system. Sharp criticism of the authorities occurs and faith in the system is lost. Growing incompetence of the ruling classes.
B. At least one class is on the rise economically. It begins to demand participation in govenment and careers open to talent. Upper classes lock them out and the ranks of aristocracy close. Class distinctions become more hardened.
C. Government experiences serious fiscal and financial problems.

II. Symptomatic/Moderate Stage
A. Moderates rise to prominence and challenge the existing authority.
B. As authority is challenged, some acts of violence occur
C. Government fails to use force effectively.
D. Moderates win the day and get power. Honeymoon period where the revolution seems to be over.
E. Pressure from extremists grows.
F. Moderates are overthrown

III. Crisis/Radical Stage
A. Reign of terror and virtue/mass executions
B. Regicide
C. Use of secret police
D. Foreign threat to revolution
E. Extreme nationalism
F. Suppression of pleasure/demand for sacrifice
G. Religious faith in man's ability to create an earthly paradise.
H. Class Struggle
I. Economic Crisis

IV.Convalescence/Recovery Stage
A. Things revert back to normal (reign of terror over)
B. Government resorts to pre-revolution form of government
C. Peace is made with neighboring countries.

----------------------

pick your point on the steps

Msongs

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. You forgot the part where old Hippies start collecting arms

and ammunition.

[JDPriestly]

2. The old hippies of my acquaintance are still in the marching

for peace stage, and I don't think there is much danger of their regressing into a more violent terrible twos stage.

[Glorfindel]

3. I'm REALLY looking forward to III A & B....

[happyslug]

4. But I am afraid we are at 1C not IIIA

In simpler terms we are pre-revolutionary NOT Revolutionary. Moderate reformers are just about to get in charge (Obama, Clinton or even McClain). None of them will be able to handle the upcoming economic disaster (i.e. price of Gasoline going to $10 a gallon, through a combination of decline in the Dollar and increase in real fuel prices). Intellectuals have been abandoning the Right for over a Decade (Much of this net driven as opposed to the earlier movement to the right based on the greater control of Newspapers and TV by Corporate America).

[tom_paine]

6. Yep. 1C and there will likely be no revolution. We are going to do what the Germans and Romans did

98% chance.

Which is: Go along to get along. Not make waves. Render unto (Caesar/Hitler/Bush) and look out for the shitstorm below.

30% of Amerikans are going to make excellent Camp Guards, Neighborhood Spies, Bushie Block captains, and SA. Half of them are already chomping at the bit to get those Liberals, Jews, Blacks, and Queers.

1C and don't expect to see II or III.

Sorry that's just how I see it. We have little to nothing left of the Founding Fathers in us.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. You are looking at the wrong revolution

we are at phase three of the REAGAN revolution. That is the COUNTER REVOLUTION against the New Deal

We are seeing phase three... and phase one started a long time ago.

I just hope that Muricans wake up someday, but I realize it is mostly a dream

[tom_paine]

8. Who were the prominent moderates in power in section II, then?

Bush I? From here he appears to be nothing of the sort. I guess, because he did the intial and middle phases of dismantling the System, not the latter stages (done under Clinton: privatization of the vote, Clinton's Phony Impeachent, breaking/corporatizing of the media, Fox Noise, etc.) and the last seven years of the real transition from dismanlted democracy to New Totalitarianism, Poppy Bush's depradations do indeed seem "moderate" when viewed from the low ground of today.

But I can't view him as a "moderate" even though I could see how, for the purposes of this chart, he could be considered so.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Clinton

and he was, compared to the fanatic that came after him

Good news, the counter revolution is running out of steam

[Hannah Bell]

11. When you say "phony impeachment," how do you mean that?

Could you explain a bit?

[tom_paine]

13. I mean, more felonies were committed by the Bushies and their Arkansas Project

in setting the "perjury trap" than Clinton committed in his lie about sex.

Or that, more recently, Alberto Gonzales perjured himself multiply, repeatedly, shamelessly, KNOWING that he would never be prosecuted, let alone convicted. Not only did he multiply perjure, all caught on videotape, but his testimony was not only contradicted by his aides, but by the Director of the FBI.

Nope, no perjury there. Nothing to see. Move along.

Thus Clinton's Impeachment was as phony as Hitler's "trials" of his policical enemies.

For Nazis in 1930s German and Bushies in 2000s Amerika, perjury is legal. End of story.

For the rest of us, well let me just say don't try contradicting the testimony of the Director of the FBI at home. These stunts are performed by professional criminals and should not be duplicated.

In that context, the impeachment run against Clinton, as is painfully even MORE obvious in retrospect was not an action of the Rule of Law, but just it's opposite, the double-standard that is so common among all totalitarian States, not just Bush-Occupied Amerika.

It was a phony sham that would have been at home in Imperial Rome or Nazi Germany. In those places and times, the result for Clinton would have probably been bloodily fatal, so he can be thankful it is this incarnation of totalitarianism he was entrapped by, not the German or Roman versions of history.

I hope this explains where I was coming from with my "phony impeachment" comment. For more about why comparisons of Bushies to Nazis are NOT hyperbolic nor overblown, please inspect this link below and the to links in my signature line, particularly Naomi Wolf's presentation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/document/document_20070723.shtml

[Hannah Bell]

14. I get it, thAnks. n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

10. I wonder why the guy at the lower left has no pants on...

It's symbolic of something, I'm sure. Seems to me to be a damned risky way to fight a revolution, though... :shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Welcome to Phase III of the Friedman \ reagan Revolution

that is where we are... and the secret police is just getting warmed up

We had our moderate phase already

[SpiralHawk]

12. "We republicons don't need to 'grow' no steenkin incompetence." - Commander AWOL

"Incompetence, corruption, and propaganda are our natural specialities."

- Commander AWOL