02-05-2017, 09:16 PM
(02-05-2017, 04:19 AM)Mickey123 Wrote:(02-05-2017, 01:48 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: The storm is already here, and I have predicted this storm for decades. 2016 is the beginning of a storm that will continue through the rest of the 4T. The weather has now changed and the forecast is for this 2017 storm to build. It will be primarily a domestic storm, some kind of revolution and/or civil strife, as the divisions in our country lead to fundamental choices we must make. No, the storm is here; not with China. We have no beef with China that's worth nuclear war or huge invasions. We are mutually dependent. Trump is the catalyst, and the opposition to him is the regeneracy. It must be unrelenting from now on, until we take power again and through further domestic struggle enact the reforms we need.
There is a way in which what you're predicting and hoping for is possible, and that is some sort of socialist revolution. Perhaps it would also be possible to have a civil war, with the country breaking into pieces, with one or more of the pieces representing the values you share. Such things are absolutely possible in a Crisis.
The socialist revolution that took place almost a century ago in Russia would be a catastrophe. I can easily imagine parts of America responding differently to a despotic President. So far, Republicans have every imaginable edge because they have the rural areas and Democrats have the cities. Cut off the water, fuel, and electricity to the cities and the rebellion starves. We have yet to see how the elections of 2018 will go. Democrats have far more Senate seats up for challenge than do Republicans. At least as significant are gubernatorial elections in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Florida.
Quote:I think a socialist revolution is entirely unlikely, as the climate for it does not exist here. The average person is too well off, and socialism (beyond the socialist programs we already have, such as social security) is not well regarded.
Socialist revolutions typically occur in countries with incompetent leadership, no heritage of democracy, excessive centralization of industry, and a social breakdown during the early stage of industrialization. A consumer society makes a Lenin, Mao, Tito, Hoxha, Ho Chi Minh, or Castro impossible.
Much of the world is on the brink of something because the struggle to produce enough consumer goodies to make people happy is over. People may need less stuff because they are living in smaller dwellings, and mere possession of stuff hardly impresses people any more.
Quote:The country breaking into pieces is more likely. I can easily see it being sparked by the legalization of marijuana in the western states, for example. The federal government attempts to crack down on marijuana sales in Colorado or Washington State, the state in question calls out the police and the national guard to defend its citizens, and various states start taking sides. I see this as more of a more of a last ditch scenario, though, where the country can't find any other reasonable way of acting out the crisis and just breaks into pieces. I don't think much of the country would end up with the set of values you're hoping for if this is how the crisis plays out, though.
The usual cause -- while things are going badly, someone in a high position does something stupid.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.