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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Just because most revolutions end up being lead by persons from the Middle Class, it is hardly surprising as leading any sort of large organization requires a good deal of communications, leadership and organizational skills. The resentment and anger of the poor is always critical to the success of revolutions and it is just as real and important even if the revolutions are managed by disaffected members of high social "classes".

The poor were critical to revolutions in France, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Zimbabwe. Remember that a political revolution is just as revolutionary as a violent one. When the poor are sufficiently angry they can provide the political base for radical leaders and radical policies that can cause a country to careen off the rails. The poor might not rise up and start running the aristocracy off to the guillotine, but they can empower governments that can.

The United States might never have to worry about mobs of the foreclosed storming the gates of Beverly Hills with their personal firearms, but we should all alert to a popular demagogue that is able to capture the support from the economically disposed segment of the population. These things happen like a rubber band snapping and will take the existing ruling establishment completely by surprise. When 75% of the population becomes mad as hell and refuses to take it any more, whatever leader that can mobilize them as a bloc will be in a position to carry out some very crazy policies.

So anyone who runs around shouting that Obama is a socialist just keep up the policies of increasing inequality and see what happens when the US gets a real Hugo Chavez in power.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

That is correct, the Arab Spring revolutionaries are highly educated unemployed:

http://popecenter.org/clari...

All revolutions have come from the middle class, who are sick of the government pushing them around. Historically, though, the results have typically been far from ideal. The U.S. is the one main exception to that rule.

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