I will return to matters of D&D, I swear ... when I have the time.
Thinking instead today of America's woes, a government that's broken, a coming election that looks to the rest of the world like an enormous sad joke ... and most of all a rich upper class that cares nothing for the remainder of the population. We gaze in wide wonder from outside at a congress and senate so thick with graft that the simplest legislation, even legislation in the interest of the ruling class, has trouble getting passed.
It cannot be helped but to contemplate on the inevitable revolution that will seize the crumbling ruins of America, as that country turns against itself degree by degree. The question has long since been how long before the revolution comes, and not if - always remembering that every successful revolution in history has been the kicking in of a rotten door.
Thus I offer this small morsel for thought. As the power of America exists in the hands of the rich, who think only of themselves, who even among themselves compete and cheat the system to better the miser in the castle next door, how much concerted resistance will this class put forward when the door is inevitably kicked in? Or will they flee, scattering to the four winds with their booty and their self-aggrandizement, caring nothing for the country they've squandered to obtain their wealth. When the rotten door of the country gives way, will there be anyone but the patriotic poor keeping the country against the patriotic poor attempting to wrest it away?
When will half the poor refuse to kill the other half for the sake of bastards who care nothing for anyone?
The Third Industrial Revolution by Jeremy Rifkin lays it all out rather nicely. I also recommend Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graber to give you some context on how the former will unfold.
ReplyDeleteAs to us, your older brothers to the south, yes, we're going through a rough patch. Sorry about the mess. Once we get this all sorted out, we'll be sure to clean it up.
You can always hire a hungry man to kill another hungry man, it's also all too possible to scare people who have never really been hungry to gleefully do the deed in the name of freedom.
ReplyDeleteJust make room in Canada for those of us non-rich that are fleeing, eh?
ReplyDeleteI think it's more likely that energy supplies will run out first, forcing an upheaval in every strata of society not only in the States, but in the world as well. It will not be pretty, there will be no kumbaya moment at the end of the revolution, just stragglers trying to piece together a new world out of the smoking ruins of the old.
ReplyDeleteOf course, my view could be colored by the fact that I've been playing Fallout 3 lately.