Aswad
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Joined: 4/4/2007
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MadAxeman
Cross reference this with the Russian revolution.
Starving plebs and an unconcerned elite.
You know the real tragedy, right?
It's an even closer parallel than you may think.
Obama is Marie Antoinette in a modern reincarnation; bear with me here...
Historical version:
The French monarchy dealt with fallout from their predecessors, alliances, treaties and debts, in the middle of what we can compare to a modern recession. As a result, it was difficult to solve the problems faced by the country at the time, but they made more of an effort than any predecessor ever did, and more than their successors. However, part of their solution was to deprive the aristocracy of power and wealth, and to trim down both the excesses and the enormous size of the largely useless and parasitic aristocratic ranks. This turned the aristocracy against them, and the marginalized parts of the aristocracy mobilized the population in a false grass roots movement. Part of the strategy was placing the blame on the exact people trying to fix the problems faced by the common man, and to level false, frivolous and irrelevant charges against the most targettable among the nobility. In the end, they roused the population to tear down the people working to improve things for them, and power was evenly distributed between the ones who had caused the problem, the ones who exacerbated it, and the ones that were cut in order to solve the problem. This disaster resulted in a long series of ills that the world is not yet done dealing with.
As an example of how effective they were, many people still approve the "why don't they eat cakes?" quote to Marie Antoinette, who is notable for giving away a substantial portion of her own wealth to the poor, including an instance of giving out her own allowance to the poor in front of a church while some of the people in the crowd were shouting, spitting and throwing things at her. Hardly what one would associate with the characterizations her detractors used about her to change opinions about her from favoring her to posing her corpse with that of another in a display of necrophilia to disgrace her postmortem.
Modern:
The current president of the USA deals with the fallout from his predecessors, alliances, treaties and debts in the middle of a recession. As a result, it is difficult to solve the problems faced by the union at this time, but he is making a serious effort, far more than his predecessor, and far more than his successor is likely to. However, part of his solution is redistributing wealth and power from the rich and powerful, to the people by whose labors this excess was accumulated, improving things for the common man at the expense of the modern aristocracy. He also has efforts in place to make society work better for everyone that are poorly understood (now as then, really) by the masses, while his detractors are willing to ignore facts to make it seem the other way around.
Following from this, the parasites that are being trimmed back have mobilized a historically speaking quite precedented counteroffensive and passed it off as grass roots up to the point where it gained the necessary momentum to destroy the political arena. Part of the strategy has been placing the blame on the exact people trying to fix the problems faced by the common man, and to level false, frivolous and irrelevant charges. And, as before, the outcome is predictable: when the dust settles, the short end of the stick will still be held by the people duped into doing the parasites' work for them, meaning the common man, and the wealth and power will be distributed between those who caused these problems in the first place, those who made everything worse, and those who were trimmed back to address the problems. The parasites will dig in deeper, and the West will pay the price for the (un)forseeable future.
Future:
Borrowing from a comment by Kissinger on another topic, the century long depression experienced by the Qin empire is coming to an end, whereupon they will resume their place at the apex of human civilization, technology, research and finance, where they have been for several millenia. The USA is presently a necessary export market for them, but that will end when their current cycle of infrastructure investment permits their living standard to rise at a similar pace to what the parasitic corporate superstructure of the USA is permitting their living standard to fall. When the latter is done eviscerating the USA, removing the middle class entirely, there will be no relevant export market, and no reason to maintain the currently beneficial releations. At that point, they will likely collect on the US foreign debt, which will default.
Practice your Standard Mandarin and learn to love The Party...
... that's the better one of the two most likely futures for the USA now.
Health,
al-Aswad.
P.S.: Being a bit pointed and pessimistic here, but it really is a tragic display of human non-progress.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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Our economy, summed up nicely in history - 
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