DISQUS

Ameritocracy: {biff here now}

  • Porter · 1 year ago
    It's pretty interesting.

    To me? An evolutionary, not a revolutionary? This was just beyond exciting. The very idea of "revolution" (as I think of it) frustrates me, as I think we've discussed a bit. Seeing people this excited about some big steps forward vs. a supposed take-down of the whole system... was unimaginable and exciting.

    I'm not really sure how this would compare to a revolution. I would be willing to bet we'd see more property damage in a revolution.

    Yep. I just think we're battered, not broken, and getting better. If slowly.
  • Porter · 1 year ago
    Also, part of my excitement - and I think many others - is that we did not take the big leap *backwards* that we almost did.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/palin-...
  • oBifferson · 1 year ago
    Heh, yes of course we would disagree on that. Unfortunately there is a
    potential for violence in a revolution (although the ACTUAL overthrow of the
    tsarist regime by the working people of Russia in 1917 involved almost no
    violence, because the govt had already practically crumbled from the
    inside). Reading stories about that time is amazing: people debating in the
    streets all night, people learning to read, the opera houses opening to
    everyone including the poor, homosexuality legalized, communal kitchens
    opened to help lift the burden on women in the home, everyone was just so
    excited in that period of time before the civil war and the capitalist
    countries' invasions.

    It just makes me wonder. If we had elected a president who really wanted to
    withdraw troops from Iraq immediately, or a president who would really
    install a single-payer healthcare system, or a president who could somehow
    get all the homeless people off the streets and get help for the poor (all
    of this is of course, either tough or impossible under capitalism)... I just
    wondered what it would have been like if I was ACTUALLY happy about it. Yes,
    I'm glad a black man is in the white house, and I'm much more glad that he's
    both intelligent and charming and says a LOT of great stuff. I LOVE what he
    says about The People being a force, and what he says about college and
    volunteerism. But I also wish of course, that he could go further. He can't
    of course, this is America, so I don't blame him. I just... wondered. What
    would it be like if something happened that actually made me feel...
    liberated?