NLG: Protesters facing terrorism charges in solitary, over 100 defendents from the weekend,

[leveymg]

8. I said it was a strategy. I didn't say it was a smart or historically successful one.

The authorities and the institutions they protect and serve risk a collapse of popular perceptions of legitimacy. There have been episodes like this in the past -- the years 1848 and 1967 stand out.

If that happens again, now, and the sense that the police and elite institutions no longer are playing by rules of a civil society spreads, the dam will burst and the neoliberal elites will be swept away as the middle-class gives up old habits of maintaining obedience to law and order. People will stop cooperating in various ways, and start doing things differently.

Legitimacy is all that keeps the One Percent in power. It's not fear, and increasing force against dissent can't save them - it only speeds the process of loss of elite power. If they were really competent, they would understand and act accordingly to rein in the cops and feds and military, who pose a real danger of becoming a predatory elite in themselves, displacing competing elites. The years 1871, 1932 and 1973 come to mind for that alternative outcome.