Revolution around the corner? With the groundswell of discontent increasing around the world about all manner of things could there be a repeat of the 1848 European revolutions?
In as much as the question mentions Europe, the answer would be no.
The poorest Europeans today are far better off than European Royalty in the 18th Century. No one is starving, in spite of previous comments, and it is not the "rich" that are holding people back but rather regulation and bureaucracy that stifle economic growth and thus mutes job creation and opportunity. Some nations, France and in Scandinavia for example, are actually scaling back taxes and regulations in order to spur GDP growth.
As for the rest of the world, read Pinker and Ridley. Worldwide the poverty rate is lower, people are wealthier, more healthy, and better fed than ever before in history. General statistics do not preclude violent uprisings among those left behind but they are an indication of improving conditions in the face of doomsayers. Violence in general, by the way, tends to set a people back, not advance them.
Agreed. There is currently not an imperative to change the status quo. Perhaps as resources diminish the emphasis may shift.
As long as the middle class and the rich remain indifferent to the suffering of the working class and the poor the likelihood for unrest increases.
When you are starving and living like an animal there is nothing to lose.
I believe in the dialectic of history, the momentum of change and progression by conflict and resolution by negation of contradictions, producing new states which result in further contradictions and conflict and so on. We focus on the multitude of issues that surround us, but the bigger picture I believe is the decline of the west and western values, partly through the emergence of the next stage in the Industrial Resolution, which is both moving away from and transforming the west negatively, and also the pursuit in the west of anti-progressive politico-economic policies which are fostering inequality, internal conflict and internal decline. I suspect this broad momentum was probably inevitable due to the historical forces at work now in this century. I also think this will result in conflict, as in class and power conflict, revolutions possibly in one form or another, when consciousness evolves to that point.
Add to this the inevitable impact that planetary damage will produce in the near future, climate change etc, and the middle and later stages of this century will, I suspect, be every bit as catastrophic as the science fiction writers have prophesied in the past. I for one give thanks for having spent my youth and younger days in the decades 60s-90s which I think will be written up as the high point decades of the west after the defeat of military fascism in the 1940s. Going forward I can only feel negative about the future of liberty and freedom in the world and the strengthening of fascism in the world.
Just for the record, I do not think fascism was defeated in the past, just set back. It has just evolved into new and even more dangerous variants. We can no doubt expect religions to be of no help in the struggle against it, in fact quite the opposite as always.
Quite agree there David. Certainly 60's - 80's. In UK Thatcherism put an end to any progressive social cohesion, culminating in the miner's strike and the beginning of decline. I know this sounds strange but the critical mass point for me was the release of Brothers In Arms on CD 1985. Suddenly the digital world opened to the world with mainstream affiliation. I am not decrying digitality for one minute
but to me it was when the innocence of youth began its decline. I think Brothers In Arms is a tremendous slbum by the way. It's just the signpost that indicates the dawn of a new age. I know I've a strange mind but there we go!
Or even the 1914 revolutions in Europe which were also preceded by racism, nationalism, authoritarianism, and increasing wealth disparity.....
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Yes I see the similarities also. What we are experiencing now is very similar to the pre 1914-1918 war era.