Upon Hope: Heading Towards The Revolution

Saturday 26 June 2021

Heading Towards The Revolution

The word revolution has two meanings with the meanings often being used interchangeably. The first is the original meaning, which is the violent overthrow of a government. The second meaning comes from the French Revolution, which is that everything, the government, society, religion are all being overthrown and replaced. So when a revolution happens in the Third World and one dictator replaces another dictator, that is the first kind of revolution. In the Western world when you hear people talking about revolution they nearly always mean the second.

Revolutionary has three meanings, it can simply mean something new, it can mean that someone is dedicated to overthrowing the government, or it can mean someone who is dedicated to overthrowing 'everything'.

Most histories of revolutions talk about the principles, about the high ideals that propelled the revolution forward. But that is putting the cart before the horse. Revolutions break out because people have lost faith in the government, in fact in the entire system of government. Looking at history it seems that that always boils down to money. The government has gotten itself into so much debt that it cannot pay it's bills. That leads to people who normally support the government, either turning against it or refusing to defend it, in word or deed, when it is attacked.

Is there any Western country that is not in debt?

Is there any Western country that has a plan to get out of debt?

So we are heading towards a revolutionary environment, one in which debt comes to dominate everything.

Many in economics believe that revolutionary means that we are heading into new economic territory. That might be bad but it also might be good. But never before in history has creating money out of fresh air worked out. Today our governments print money that in reality has little to no value and one day that fact will become accepted. Again, if history is any guide. If it is not then the Economists are right, the revolution does mean new.

Or does revolutionary mean the violent overthrow of the government?

One thing that will be different is that this problem is not confined to one country or region, it is wide spread. That means that one revolution may lead to another and so on.

Or does it mean the overthrow of 'everything'?

If so then people had better be careful what they wish for, because revolutions rarely turn out as the revolutionaries want.

Debt means that whatever we are in will not last, but that does not mean it has to end tomorrow. As Adam Smith said, "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation". Which means that it takes time to destroy.

What will the revolution be like?

Here is a podcast that I did on revolutions