[monkeyshine]

I have said this before but compared to, say, the 1960’s we are an extremely docile Democracy. There are very few protests. The biggest protests have been the Reform Party (Ross Perot) and the Tea Party. But there have been no assassinations unlike the 1960’s, and no massive sit-ins, no riotous raucous political conventions, and so on.

I’m not criticizing, I just wonder what changed. Is it TV, internet, radio the opiate of the masses? Xanax and the SSRIs? The economic boom we have had post Carter?

Maybe the protest part is starting the change. I don’t hope for violence but I hope for massive reform.

[GonzoGOP]

I’m not criticizing, I just wonder what changed. Is it TV, internet, radio the opiate of the masses? Xanax and the SSRIs? The economic boom we have had post Carter?

Actually the chage you are looking for is May 4, 1970 at Kent State. After that getting in the National Guards face wasn't as much fun.

The main change from the classic communist is that they no longer work for some greater cause. Oh they proclaim worker's rights, but what they really want is just free stuff for themselves. It is a movement built on envy and selfishness. Neither motivation allows for self sacrifice.

That fact puts the lie to the call for violence by the left. They cannot stand under fire. They are brutal but not brave. It is the failing of all atheist/Hobbsian movements. If there is nothing more than the individual and their wants and desires then the individual must survive the conflict. How many times has the course of a war turned on the heroic last stand? Yet the very philosophy of the left prevents them making a last stand. This is why the leftist governments of Europe and the Middle East are falling like raindrops before the Islamists. The leftists fear their own deaths, Islamists crave it. The leftist will do nothing while his neighbors are carted away in hopes that by being a good little commie they won't come for him. They are all for violence inflicted on the defenseless. But they will melt like ice on a hot day when violence is imposed on them.