XPost: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy, alt.philosophy.taoism, alt.philosophy.zen   
   From: absfg_wilson@yahoo.com   
      
   On 10/4/2016 3:42 PM, Ned Ludd wrote:   
   >   
   >  Yeah, it's a good article. But it ignores the fundamental point   
   > that it mentions time and again.  The unavoidable problem of the   
   > Roman Republic (and America), is that it became enormously   
   > wealthy while it destroyed a large and viable middle class.  In a   
   > way, that is saying the same thing.  As a class becomes wealthy,   
   > it will feed on the less powerful classes.   
   >   
   >  Nothing stops this.  When people become wealthy enough, they   
   > can avoid the law.  Their wealth can be brought to bear against   
   > anything and anyone who threatens their wealth.   
   >   
   >  So, what is the obvious conclusion from that?  And do you see   
   > why that conclusion is an impossibilty to actualize?   
   >   
   > Ned   
      
   Jefferson recommended the remedy.  The French went particularly adept in   
   implementing it.   
      
   I think the point is to avoid that sort of bloodshed if possible.   
      
   Liam's characterization of this thing as "Trump's brand of populism"   
   completely misses the big picture.  Trump did not create it and he can   
   not end it.   
      
   The roots go at least back to the Iraq invasion.  It grew after 2008   
   with the governments response to the economic crisis.  The establishment   
   solution with massive spending and bailouts to the well-connected was   
   fiscally irresponsible and unfair.  Both political parties were up to   
   their elbows in it.   
      
   Obama may have been the personification and focus of protest, but he   
   wasn't the cause.  It wasn't about him.  There was a sense that our   
   government no longer represented its people.  And that unease has   
   changed into, if not hatred, at the least antipathy towards this   
   country's entrenched leadership.   
      
   It will not end if Clinton wins.  If she does not respond intelligently,   
   the divide will only become wider.   
      
   Strauss urges our elites to respond wisely rather than merely denouncing   
   the dissenters.  But our establishment charges forth with charges of   
   "false consciousness, bigotry, resentment, bad manners, mental illness,   
   peevishness, superstition, or class warfare".  There's damn little   
   wisdom to be found.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)