Does a contemporary revolution require blood and property destruction?

[haele]

15. Pitchforks is a mob reaction. The revolution has gotten out of control by then.

The problem is two-fold.
First is the pressure from the top level meeting the bottom level that is attempting to gain some ground of their own.
For the pitchforks not to come out when there is a need for socio-economic or socio-political change, there first needs to be an equalizing figure; a Gandhi, a FDR, a MLK - some sort of transformational populist figure that the less polarized population can gather around and who can use those more moderate forces to push through social change by sheer numbers. Second, there needs to be a smart enough political system in place (i.e., some sort of representative governance) that allows the leaders on the primary ends to negotiate, give up a little for the greater good, and still be able to have some power and leverage left after the negotiations are over.
Without both, the hard-liners are in control of the message - on either side. And the wall between the two sides grows higher as the general population becomes more polarized through uncertainty, and frankly, fear of losing everything when the wall topples over.
It happens time and time again, while anyone who is observing what is going on is left scratching their heads going "why is this happening - why are these otherwise good people acting like vicious shits to those other good people?"

The second part of the problem are the organizations who see opportunity in "destructive change". A wonderful business term that many modern CEOs and MBAs like to throw around when they're talking about outsourcing or down-sizing. There's a lot of opportunity to profit from chaos. "Media" outlets profit by pandering to the worst case scenario and the easiest way out (like "kill them all and let God sort them out&quot It's too difficult - and expensive - to be proactive and look at the various causes and issues that actually are causing the situation, but it's real easy - and cheap - to get attention and rating by ramping up the FUD factor and getting people hooked on outrage so they don't think, they react.
Sociopaths - opportunists, vulture capitalists, and other white-collar scam artists, further instigate FUD because it allows them to act and become wealthy while everyone else start to turtle in because they're terrified about losing their families, home, and livelihood that "those others" are going to take. Whether or not that's the actual idea.

The harder the top pushes down on the bottom, the worse it will become because the societal structure cannot hold. And that's when the pitchforks and torches come out.
Just remember this pearl of revolutionary wisdom - the guys who sell farm implements and gasoline make a crap-load of money when the mobs start gathering.

Haele