re: #229 Idle Drifter

This seems partly to ring true for the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution as well. That certain sections of society seemed all too willing to engage in the violence. All the participants needed was the excuse to shed all restraints of a civil society which was supplied by the propagandists and firebrands. Every aspect was tailored made for the desired effect.

I think another key ingredient to the violence was that those revolutions were rebelling against an aristocracy that truly had not earned it’s riches, other than by the accident of birth.
The situation in America is radically different, since this country was founded in opposition to the old aristocratic paradigm and here, for the most part, the wealthy have earned what they have. That makes it much harder to rationalize violently redistributing their wealth.