You can’t stop popular anger. Period. There is no amount of automation force you can must, no amount of property protection law enforcement you can recruit, train and weaponize, there are no amount of crooked judges, lobbyists and politicians you can purchase and slot in. Well, at least until we are further this century, when technology is going to be even more volatile and powerful, but I;d argue the situation halfway the 21st century is going to be even more dangerous for the global elites.
So what am I warning you people for?
I am warning you for very sudden, very volatile, very radical shifts in how people respond. You can see this happen right now and have been witnessing it happening the last few years. Specifically “trump”. Trump is the result of ‘previously’ entitled whites realizing they are now no longer experiencing previous privilege – because rich people. Because Goldman Sachs. Because Jeff Bezos. Because Koch Brothers. By and large because you.
This is normal. This has happened every single time before in human history and it is going to happen now. I understand that for someone the likes of Jeff Bezos, another few billion is much like “I ain’t gona stop with heroin till tomorrow afternoon…”. I understand, affluence, propensity, richess it’s all terribly fun and terribly addictive.
But this can’t go on, and if you think “things will all go pretty well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves”, let me point you at the trump phenomenon.
Europeans are slackjawed with offended about trump. I didn’t think democracy could generate a more ghastly phenomenon than, say, berlusone. But it has. Trump was unexpected even to the last day, to the point that the previous president regarded the idea as patently unthinkable as the elections happened.
You, rich people, can’t control this, and frankly I am not looking forward to a global far left, repressive “death or exile” tyranny. Or far right, whatever the angry leitmotiff du jour because it can swing either way. Let me remind you by going full Godwin – in Woeld War 2 nazi’s can easily be argued to not really be all that interested in killing jews. I can easily argue that german fascists went after jews to liberate and redistribute societal resources and saitisfy their goons and thugs.
In other words, I anticipate a level of very sudden anger, massive instability, massive and totally unexpected re-appropriation of technologies and the literal extermination of select rich people “on some contrived pretext”. I don’t want that, not because I by and large give a damn about what happens to the rich, but primarily because a sudden period of political volatility will fuck around with my standards of living.
Yes, this is yet another pitchforks article. The world rich must stop, and stop now. Enough is enough, and you should do so if you care for your own lives and the lives of your children.
I am not a fan of capitalism, but I grudgingly agree capitalism has its uhm.. functionality. But there need be major adjustments towards rational definitions and algorithms how much disparity is significantly too much (we are there right now) and how to redress this.
I hope this happens organically, without too much looting and fires. But I am pessimistic and I fear it will “take” mass death and lynchings of rich people to turn the tide.
But mass death and occasional lynchings is nothing compared to how bad this can escalate. Be fucking warned.