If you are reading these words you are a privileged person. Odds are you are age seventy or younger and live in the United States or another highly industrialized, Westernized country. If this demographic describes you, as it does me, you should be aware that in the grand scope of human history, our experience has been unique. We live in a world that is for the most part safe, stable, and well-ordered. We have access to technology that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. Of course there have been historical ups and downs, and many serious changes since 1945. But our fundamental way of life has not been threatened. There have been no famines, no epidemics, no wars — in other words, none of the terrible things that periodically occur throughout history and kill a whole bunch of people. Except not in the West, at least not in the past seven decades. Is it any wonder the rest of the world hates us?
We have talked a lot on these forums about the deteriorating socio-political situation in the United States. Income inequality, the militarization of police, and the commercialization of, well, everything have combined to create a frayed and failing social structure.
I think a social revolution is coming. That word, revolution, tends to be a hot-button, as it conjures images of armed conflict in the streets like something out of Red Dawn. But revolutions can also be economic, social, political. What comes first, the revolution or the shooting? I don't know, but either way change is coming.
Don't worry, I'm not a witch. I didn't foresee this in a crystal ball. And I'm not a survivalist looney, the sort who feverishly dream of a postapocalyptic world in which they can survive solely on their wits and with their trusty gun by their side. No, I'm just reading the history, and looking at patterns.
Wholesale change is coming. Those of us who were born at the end of the twentieth century will die in a very different world from the one into which we were born. Future historians will mark this as the end of one period and the beginning of another.
Now, there are two ways that wholesale social change can happen in a society: 1) Quickly and violently, and 2) Incrementally and (mostly) peacefully.
In American history, perhaps the best example of the first is the Civil War. Six years of bloody slaughter brought an end to a centuries-old way of life, and literally changed the face of America forever.
A good example of incremental change can be found in 19th century Britain. Consider that in 1800 Britain was effectively a caste society, ruled by a highborn elite of aristocrats and royals; the average peasant had no more say in the governance of the country than they did in the Middle Ages. But by 1900 Britain was a democracy, commoners had the vote, and the monarchy had been relegated to a largely ceremonial status. That's a tremendous amount of social progress made in 100 years, and for the most part it was achieved without wholesale violence or social upheaval. Instead the English ruling classes, keenly aware of the social revolutions taking place on the continent, ceded power to the people incrementally in an effort to keep the peace and avoid any, er, unpleasantness. If there is one thing the English upper classes dislike it is unpleasantness.
America in 2015 is not unlike Britain in 1800 in some ways. Like the Britain of that time, our country is ruled by a class of wealthy elites who live apart from the general population, answerable to no one. But we don't have 100 years. The pace of change is too fast now.
The United States is like the proverbial powder keg right now. So far our rulers (by which I mean both our elected officials and the wealthy private individuals who bankroll — and thus control — them) have managed to avoid widespread social unrest by keeping us fat and happy, but that is no longer working, mostly because their greed has cut into our fat, and therefore our happiness.
What the über-rich have never understood is that the poor don't hate them for having so much. The poor hate the rich for having so much while the poor have so little. People are willing to accept the existence of a wealthy elite as long as they are doing okay themselves. Hell, on some level people LIKE the idea of a wealthy elite, because it leaves open the possibility that they might get there some day. That's the American dream, right?
But it has gotten out of control. The rich have become too rich, too powerful, answerable to no one. Every day we hear some new report of the absurdity of the situation, some poor elderly person who lost their pension while the bankers who lost it make billions, etc., etc. There is a growing sense of the crowd milling at the palace gates, and it's only a matter of time before the crowd turns ugly.
My advice: If you have money, don't flaunt it. You don't want to be the guy driving a Benz the day the revolution comes.