The age of turboparalysis
The world faces years of ineffective rebellion and enduring recession
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/the_age_of_turboparalysis/singleton/
A very nice way of putting our current situation of lots of activity without any progress. I also like the idea that we are in an interregnum, summed up here:
“Is it a revolt?” King Louis XVI asked the Duke de la Rouchefoucauld on July 12, 1789, only to receive the reply: “No, sire, it is a revolution.” Revolts by peasants and workers throughout history have fizzled out spontaneously or have been easily suppressed. Revolts turn into revolutions only when a section of the elite breaks away with and sides with non-elite insurgents. In doing so, the dissident members of the elite often wish to preserve as much of their status or property as they can, by leading and shaping a movement that would otherwise displace them. Joe Kennedy explained his support for the New Deal by saying that he would give away half his wealth if as a result he were allowed to keep the other half.
So, until some significant portion of the elite (and who, exactly, is this elite? If it is the wealthy and powerful, I think we have a very long wait) figures it is in their best interest to join in fomenting revolution, we got bupkis…
Until then, we may be stuck in a prolonged interregnum between an old system that cannot be re-created and a new system that cannot yet be built. We may have to endure years of activity without action and motion without movement — years of turboparalysis.
