Comments on: As elections approach, France contemplates a bonfire

By: whyknot

whyknot — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:20:57 +0000

Viva La France

By: OneOfTheSheep

OneOfTheSheep — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:28:29 +0000

txgadfly and steve778936 represent the ever-present and vocal minority extreme who would bring about “revolution” in western society if they could. The ever-present fact is that western society, by and large, is steadily increasing in affluence by any historical measure.

It must falter much more than is presently likely before a majority seriously consider a path that requires destruction of the present society in order to become something significantly different. There is yet no clearly successful and sustainable alternative to use as an example with which to motivate such extreme action(s).

By: Ian_Kemmish

Ian_Kemmish — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:50:38 +0000

From Toxteth to Tottenham is almost precisely one generation. This generation is almost immeasurably better off than that, and their prospects are, on the whole better. To remind yourself of what the UK was like in the early 1980′s, one today needs to travel to the more remote parts of Eastern Europe. Your explanation for the “sudden” unrest you see – that things are for the first time in living memory getting worse from generation to generation – simply doesn’t bear even the most cursory examination. Would the people of Toxteth even be able to understand the mind of someone rioting to replace a pair of six-month old designer footwear with a brand new pair?

One sometimes feels as if op-ed authors are somehow collectively talking themselves and each other into an imagined world in which something truly momentous is always about to happen, sweeping all of the old order – except for op-ed authors, of course – before it. Perhaps after a decade of failed prognostication they need to get out more?

By: steve778936

steve778936 — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 06:16:37 +0000

Elites have always been their own worst enemies. Their mindset is always that power and wealth make you untouchable, and this despite endless revolutions. Here’s a recent factoid about the gap between rich and poor. The Walton family of Walmart fame possesses more assets than the poorest 150 million Americans. That is one family with more money than almost half the country. Those who do not join Bill Gates and the others in trying to give some of it away, may find themselves standing uncomfortably close to the executioners.

By: txgadfly

txgadfly — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:45:32 +0000

Yes, these are indeed dangerous times. And, fittingly, the elite does not sense this but sits impassively behind their made up self serving wall of rules with a smugness of Romanoff magnitude. Fools!

One spark.