Any revolution that seeks to remove an oligarchy while trying to replace it with something smaking of democracy would end up in bloodshed. The American "revolution" was the action of an emerging oligarchy against the perceived actions of a tyrant. But one thing they didn't want was democracy:
On the morning of May 29, 1787, in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, opened the meeting that would become known as the Constitutional Convention by identifying the underlying cause of various problems that the delegates of thirteen states had assembled to solve. “Our chief danger,” Randolph declared, “arises from the democratic parts of our constitutions.” None of the separate states’ constitutions, he said, had established “sufficient checks against the democracy.”
The Gander should look into Aristotle's description of political systems: oligarchy, tyranny, democracy and his analysis into those, as well as the two Davids' "The Dawn of Everything" to have a sense of the potentiality existent....
“Look — we told you about these problems and you didn’t do anything about it. We tried to be reasonable, but that failed, so now we have to escalate.” Sounds like what Putin said to the US/NATO.
To me the problem is dealing with the sociopathic personalities who populate leadership positions - whether corporate or political. Like a narcissist one cannot reason with them - they don’t do positive-sum games - only zero-sum and they never seem to have enough.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic in the face of your hopeful writing that a peaceful way out from the increasing oppression can be found - I can’t help but think that the horse had already bolted and the new unofficial power structure is implanted. It’s been decades in the making.
My concern is that the US (and NATO) is going to implode under its debt burden and chaos will ensue (chaos is already here in the cities). That void will be filled by an opportunist - and in my reading opportunists are seldom forces for the common good.
The US has been through similar times a century ago and put in place laws and organisations to prevent recurrence - these laws have been rescinded under successive presidencies (thanks to lobbying which should be banned), Citizens United should be repealed, and NATO (whose sole purpose was to defend against the USSR) should have been dissolved when the USSR fell.
I thought one of the reasons for having 'a well furnished militia' was to correct 'government over-reach'?
But your picture of the US constitution and the US 'revolution' is a rose tinted one.
The constitution was originally set up to benefit the propertied classes only. Working classes and women were purposely excluded. And the revolution allowed and led to the genocide of the Native American population. The constitution and revolution have led directly to the present unquestioning praise of unfettered capitalism and its stranglehold on US governance, the rise (or rather, more complete grasp) of an oligarchy, the denigration and elimination of leftist and socialist organisations and work-place organising, the introduction of a permanent kleptocratic war economy, and a whole host of other negative results for the US citizenry.
This is really thoughtful and thought provoking, so thank you for writing. I do find the references to “government overreach” a little jarring 50 years into the neoliberal ascendancy — while I appreciate that there are flagrant examples, such as the engagement in censorship on the part of the “alphabet agencies,” the bulk of what appears to me to be the cause of America’s social corrosion is unconstrained capital and the inevitable corruption associated with empire.
Any revolution that seeks to remove an oligarchy while trying to replace it with something smaking of democracy would end up in bloodshed. The American "revolution" was the action of an emerging oligarchy against the perceived actions of a tyrant. But one thing they didn't want was democracy:
On the morning of May 29, 1787, in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia, Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, opened the meeting that would become known as the Constitutional Convention by identifying the underlying cause of various problems that the delegates of thirteen states had assembled to solve. “Our chief danger,” Randolph declared, “arises from the democratic parts of our constitutions.” None of the separate states’ constitutions, he said, had established “sufficient checks against the democracy.”
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/democracy/our-chief-danger
The Gander should look into Aristotle's description of political systems: oligarchy, tyranny, democracy and his analysis into those, as well as the two Davids' "The Dawn of Everything" to have a sense of the potentiality existent....
“Look — we told you about these problems and you didn’t do anything about it. We tried to be reasonable, but that failed, so now we have to escalate.” Sounds like what Putin said to the US/NATO.
To me the problem is dealing with the sociopathic personalities who populate leadership positions - whether corporate or political. Like a narcissist one cannot reason with them - they don’t do positive-sum games - only zero-sum and they never seem to have enough.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic in the face of your hopeful writing that a peaceful way out from the increasing oppression can be found - I can’t help but think that the horse had already bolted and the new unofficial power structure is implanted. It’s been decades in the making.
My concern is that the US (and NATO) is going to implode under its debt burden and chaos will ensue (chaos is already here in the cities). That void will be filled by an opportunist - and in my reading opportunists are seldom forces for the common good.
The US has been through similar times a century ago and put in place laws and organisations to prevent recurrence - these laws have been rescinded under successive presidencies (thanks to lobbying which should be banned), Citizens United should be repealed, and NATO (whose sole purpose was to defend against the USSR) should have been dissolved when the USSR fell.
I thought one of the reasons for having 'a well furnished militia' was to correct 'government over-reach'?
But your picture of the US constitution and the US 'revolution' is a rose tinted one.
The constitution was originally set up to benefit the propertied classes only. Working classes and women were purposely excluded. And the revolution allowed and led to the genocide of the Native American population. The constitution and revolution have led directly to the present unquestioning praise of unfettered capitalism and its stranglehold on US governance, the rise (or rather, more complete grasp) of an oligarchy, the denigration and elimination of leftist and socialist organisations and work-place organising, the introduction of a permanent kleptocratic war economy, and a whole host of other negative results for the US citizenry.
This is really thoughtful and thought provoking, so thank you for writing. I do find the references to “government overreach” a little jarring 50 years into the neoliberal ascendancy — while I appreciate that there are flagrant examples, such as the engagement in censorship on the part of the “alphabet agencies,” the bulk of what appears to me to be the cause of America’s social corrosion is unconstrained capital and the inevitable corruption associated with empire.