| This question <15|18> overall <16|18> Daklar: <7|99>. |
| Question 12: Describe a situation in daily life in which this “abstractness” of wealth becomes an issue. |
| [17] Daklar: Is there a revolution brewing in the U.S.A.? After reading what Rosie had to say in [15] about luxuries and wealth: |
| The curve begins to plateau and then moves downward. These luxuries are providing an ever decreasing amount of fulfillment until they actually become a burden to us. |
| And what Hans had to say in [4] about overturning capitalism: |
| More and more people recognize that you cannot fix capitalism, you have to get rid of it. This cannot be done by the spontaneous actions of individuals, but only if those who see what is at stake organize, and wage a determined and protracted struggle to overturn the system. |
| I was reminded of an article I am reading by James C. Davies in the American Sociological Review, February, 1962 Vol. 27 No. 1 entitled “Toward a Theory of Revolution”. |
| Mr. Davies explains a graph measuring needs on the vertical axis and time on the horizontal. There are two properties measured in this table: “expected need satisfaction” and “actual need satisfaction”. As these properties are measured on the graph they run parallel and constant with each other with expected needs always being a little bit above the actual. |
| Through analysis of 3 historical rebellions, Dorrs Rebellion of 1842 Rhode Island, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Davies argues that there is a noticeable pattern that develops in societies near to revolution. |
| Davies says that revolutions are most likely to occur when a prolonged period of objective economic and social development is followed by a short period of sharp reversal. If we are to graph this type of phenomenon we see the expected need satisfaction continuing on up but the actual need satisfaction slowly begins to slope downward and fall away. As the gap between the expected and the actual grows it becomes more and more intolerable until the point that you have dissatisfied people deciding to aggressively change the system by whatever means possible. This is when violent revolution comes in. |
| What I found interesting about this is that as the gap between actual and expected need satisfaction grows, it doesn't necessarily mean that people become destitute or are not able to fulfill basic needs. It is simply their perception, their expected need satisfaction that has not sloped downward, and has not been fulfilled that causes the social and political unrest. |
| This is a scary observation if you think about the situation this country is in. We have been in a long period of economic and social prosperity. People are receiving more and more of their expected needs. Have you ever talked with someone at your job or in whatever context who if things are not done exactly as they want them and exactly at the time they want it done or they just lose control? Even if accomplishing the task according to their time schedule is absolutely impossible to achieve according to their time schedule they will not listen they just threaten to sue your company or to cancel their business with you. There is no satisfaction for this type of people. As we enter now a period in our economy were we are hearing more talk about recession who knows what could possibly happen if things were to get terribly worse. There are militia groups all over this country that talk about “starting the revolution”. We see in the news about the violent protests of the World Trade Organization. I don't really know but it seems to me that there is the possibility of some major upheavals in our system coming over the horizon depending on how things play out in the next few years. |
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