There has been an increasing disparity of wealth in the United States over the past thirty years. This will be addressed at some point by either rebellion or reform.Â
Rebellion brings anarchy, hunger, and eventually the establishment of a new oligarchy, what has been called "the Iron Rule of Oligarchy". This is not a rewarding path to take. (1)
Reform occurs when a faction of the existing oligarchy organizes and promotes a peaceful way to redistribute the wealth. This happened in the United States a hundred years ago with the Progressive movement; this morphed into the liberal wing of the Democratic party in the 1920s. With the onset of the Great Depression, Progressives gained power in the elections of 1930 and 1932.
At the present time there is no mainstream progressive party. Both the Democratic and the Republican parties are controlled by an oligarchy intent on maximizing wealth extraction. It quite literally took decades of organization to achieve the liberal victories of the 1930s and we can expect the same time frame again.Â
With the above in mind, it's interesting to review Chris Hedges'. The Sparks of Rebellion.
Hedges points out that rebellions are usually started by members of the middle class who are impoverished or unable to maintain acceptable lives because of corruption of the system. He mentions:
"Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan [who] examined 100 years of violent and nonviolent resistance movements in their book âWhy Civil Resistance Works.â They concluded that nonviolent movements succeed twice as often as violent uprisings. Violent movements work primarily in civil wars or in ending foreign occupations, they found. Nonviolent movements that succeed appeal to those within the power structure, especially the police and civil servants, who are cognizant of the corruption and decadence of the power elite and are willing to abandon them."
"The most important dilemma facing us is not ideological. It is logistical. The security and surveillance state has made its highest priority the breaking of any infrastructure that might spark widespread revolt."
As mentioned here previously, power comes from structured networks (Hedges's "infrastructure")Â and structured networks are built on trust. Every Power Elite works to infiltrate and discredit networks and individuals plotting to displace them. (2)
The audience for peaceful civil demonstrations is those of the oligarchy who are thoughtful enough to take the demonstration as a warning of what could come if nothing is done, open rebellion.
Machiavelli discussed all of this 500 years ago.
(1) Re-read Animal Farm by Orwell
(2) Re-read 1984 by Orwell