Anatomy of a Revolution Part 1

 

Long ago when I decided my best bet moving forward was to go back to school, contract with RoTC and make a career out of the Army after graduating I wasn't too worried about other options. If I had been I would have chosen a different field of study.

Had I known how things would go under Bush I and Clinton I wouldn't have bothered thinking an Army career was even possible either but hindsight and all that.

I will spare you any whining about roads better taken but suffice it to say a declared History major back then was not as common as you might think. I soon became quite popular with several Professors who needed students to float courses. Mostly Honor's courses but later many upper level courses that were having problems getting students signed up. I was also popular for getting Professor's their own academic requirements met for instructing a certain number of Directed Study students as well.

Who knew Professor's even had criteria they had to meet to keep their positions?

Anyway I had the honor of studying under a delightful old school PHD Historian who was absolutely in LOVE with revolutions. The Older the better in his opinion and the more French they were the more he would swoon.  I was amazed at how much this old guy could assign me about a mere two month long Commune in Paris and then find another Commune that happened even earlier to make me read about after that. 

Oh he had old texts I had to obtain, mostly one's he already owned and handed to me because if you tried to even find one for sale it would cost a small fortune back then even if you could find it to order. 

They had all kinds of rules, stages of revolt, political observations etc. The entire thing ended up taking two semesters overall and covered probably more small and/or large Revolutions than I can ever remember. One thing stuck with me all these years though... All of them were locally based. Some grew but most never really expanded passed a certain very specific regional area as far as large violent confrontations went. A lot of small ones I imagine at the local pub though I am sure.

In most cases the main seat of power was captured and the rest of the nation just kinda went along with it. Oh sometimes there was opposition were the old government hung on after the head was cut off in some part of the Nation. In some you had armies fighting for years after the fact like the Russian Revolution. You had areas that were transferred to outside players, etc. You can find some unique flavor in any and all of them.

Yet one thing constantly showed up more than any other and that was a steadily growing amount of local, often violent hot spots that pretty much bled the oppressive governments dry by over extending their ability to project power to other regions.

Seems pretty obvious of course but now try to imagine attempting to over extend a government that can print funding out of thin air. Some may say those funds are empty and worthless but if they still purchase goods or services they retain some value. 

To state it plainly the Tyrants long ago figured out the Achilles heel of government sponsored tyranny so they have changed the economics to protect themselves from that line of resistance.

As I go forward into part II I just want to point out that no government I can think of has ever been more financially protected from it's own citizens than the US is now. This fact presents American's with the first major obstacle that will have to be addressed and over come or neutralized. Some how. To make the political changes that are needed. This is the current government's major strength but there are others we must identify.

 

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!