It Aint a Pretty Sight

A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO in egypt, a few people were disenchanted with the combination of sour economy and authoritarian government, so they got on their cell phones and computers, and started talking to some of their friends about it, and the next thing you know, thousands of people are out in the streets, protesting, and eventually bringing down the egyptian government and replacing it with another, which, so far, has not proven to be any better than the previous. Oh well, at least they tried.

Soon, most arab countries were having some sort of uprising or other, and the most recent, and extreme, is the syrian civil war. The "arab spring" is a testament to the power of the internet, and cell phones.

About the same time, the "occupy wall street" movement happened in the unites states, with thousands of people not merely protesting in the streets, but camping in the streets for weeks, making the protest continuous. Laptops and cell phones were in the streets, along with the tents and sleeping bags. Unike the egyptian and syrian revolts, the occupy wall street movement did not have enough support to succeed, to bring about real political change - this time.

Anyone who thinks that a war between the rich and the poor is impossible in america should reconsider. Gore Vidal figured this out as a seven year old, riding in the back of his granfather senator gore's limo through the streets of washington, while bonus marchers pelted it with rocks and tomatoes.

A war in america between rich and poor is not only possible, it is increasingly likely as the gap in income and wealth continues to grow, to an unprecedented extent. It would prabaly begin with protest-like violence, and escalate from there, into widespread violence which might not immediately be called "war between rich and poor", but would be. (historians would figure this out later, at history conventions.)

The "ninety nine precent" theme of the occupy wall street movement was mildly clever, and not altogether unsubstantiated by facts. If only one percent of the people are evil, they must really be evil, and since they are only one percent, they are beatable. Chances are they would have more than one percent on their side, though.

But it wouldn't be a pretty sight. Hell, society aint a pretty sight now, if you really look at it.