Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I agree but for a different reason. It's simply not effective. Unrest can never be ameliorated by squashing it because censorship will always be routed around. Any attempt at pushing it down will result in it popping up somewhere else, sometimes in a different form. The only remedy is improving the material conditions for the majority of people.

In every revolution we've seen, the elites are unable to comprehend or unwilling to compromise, and in every case, the longer it drags on, the more dispossessed they eventually become. US state population trends starting in the 1840s are currently generating increasing unrest as a function of the structure of the US senate resulting in a rule by minority. As the chamber becomes increasingly unrepresentative, the ability to reform it becomes increasingly less probably due to the structure of constitutional reform.

In a more perfect world, US population geographics would be modulated by representative power. That however, is not the case. State and local governments increasingly sort voters by self-selection bias. Further entrenchment and unwillingness to compromise will be gasoline for the current tinder.



This is one of the engines behind 'history repeats itself'.


If you happen to have, or know of a list of the others, I'd be very interested in reading it.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: