Juan Cole with some thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Lots of data in there about just how bad the economics have gotten and why this is happening. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
I've been forming a blog post in my head about revolutions. The OWS is getting very interesting to me. If it remains non-violent I'll be (pleasantly) very surprised. Why? Well, here's the basic outline of the blog post. When you disenfranchise the top income people you get the Velvet Revolution or the Oligarch Revolution (what's been happening in Russia), which are relatively bloodless (with notable exceptions). When you disenfranchise the middle-class you get the American Revolution and Arab Spring which are somewhat violent, but not in comparison to… When you disenfranchise the bottom you get the French Revolution, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and October Revolution, which are distinguished by their intense violence followed by waves of purges. This, obviously, is an over simplification.
Edited 10-07 Noon I think it's somewhat funny that after several weeks of dismissing OWS as unfocused and not relevant, now that progressives are starting to line up behind it, conservatives now find it to be "dangerous."
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