The Possibility of Social Unrest in America

Dec. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Are we on the eve of destruction?

Glenn Beck might be right about one thing...we could have social unrest in America, but not just for the reasons he would have you believe.

Why have the people been protesting for the last several months all throughout Europe? In many European countries such as England the people are suffering just as they are in America, and for all the same reasons. Have you read the news lately about the protests in Britain? Their Parliament was voting on raising college tuitions as high as 300% - can you imagine that?  

Of course, Fox News and the "opinionaters" such as Glenn Beck will only show you their slant on the reasons behind those protests and will put all the blame on the people, much like they do concerning the disenfranchised in America...such as the 99ers. Albeit, they might do it subtlety with un-said words, or underlying implications...coaxing you to arrive at their preconceived conclusions. The job of Fox News (as with other media outlets) is to "influence" the masses, not necessarily just to "inform" them.

What if the cost of your tuition, rent, or food had suddenly doubled? How happy would you feel about that after watching the big banks and corporations making record profits while everybody else has been suffering horribly? Wouldn't you also be just a tad angry as well? (Beck calls all the English protesters Socialists...but are they, just that?)

And how would you feel if this had occurred after having witnessed your government leaders rewarding these same big banks and corporations with extended tax cuts, further inflating the national debt? Would you just be a little "concerned", or would you be utterly outraged?

Now imagine that while all this is going on, your rent or mortgage just doubled over-night, and only several days later you were laid off from your job because the CEO of your company sent your job to China to further increase its profits by using cheaper labor. Then later you lost your car and house after exhausting your life's savings while desperately searching for work...ANY work. And then eventually after exhausting all your UI benefits (all during which time you were called "lazy" and accused of being a Socialist), you were hung out to dry by your government. How would you feel? Would you be just be a little "troubled" and "inconvenienced"? Or would you feel totally betrayed and rip-roaring mad?

In the "old days" while comfortably sitting on our living couches we used to watch social unrest and upheaval all over the world on our brand new TV sets. To us, this all seemed to be happening a million miles away, and it didn't in any way threaten the security and safety of our existence. We once thought, "Thank God it's over there, and not here."

That is, until the riots, the burning, the looting, and the violence of the Los Angeles Watts Riots were also being witnessed by us on our spiffy new TV sets here in America. This unfortunate period of time in American history had occurred while the African-American community had been protesting for Civil Rights during the 1960s. When people are pushed too far, and they are no longer being listened to by their government leaders, and after being oppressed and made to suffer for far too long, people eventually rise up and take to the streets...they had reached their breaking point...and they started pushing back. That's how "$hit happens".

Could there be the same type of civil unrest or Euro-style protests and riots in America any time soon? I think so. In fact, unless something is done very soon, social unrest could very well come much sooner, rather than much later in some distant future. As it is now, all it could take is just one little spark.

In December of 2008 after the collapse of the stock market and the U.S. economy was in its death spiral, a U.S. Army War College report warned that an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and might need to call on the military to restore order.

But Charles Boehmer, political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, was skeptical about the Army War College report: "The military was not called out during the Great Depression, and I don't think our economic problems are as bad."

And I, being a long-term unemployed 99er, agreed with Professor Boehmer about one thing: As of December 2010 our economic problems aren't "as bad" - they're much worse. At the height of the Great Depression in 1933 almost 13 million people were unemployed. In 2010 there are over 15 million Americans who are jobless today - and that doesn't include the under-employed and the "un-counted". The biggest differences being, there are no massive bridges, skyscrapers, or dams being built. Panhandling is illegal, and the government prohibits the establishment Hoovervilles. We are incrementally being forced, little by little, into the streets...or to suicide. (I know, because I am.)

* Hoovervilles (named after President Hoover) were the shantytowns that sprang up all across the country during the Great Depression when the unemployed had needed a place to live during that tragic time in America's history.

And back then the military WAS used: to battle the unemployed World War I Veterans and to burn down their tent cities because they had been protesting for their war pensions.

And just like the Great Depression, the current economic woes for the jobless in this Great Recession were deliberately created by the big banks for profits (Google "The Money Masters"). It's almost amazing how our politicians always allows history to repeat itself...and always at the expense of regular working American citizens.  

The last I've heard, there was not an epidemic of Wall Street investors jumping out of their plush office windows...it was just the unemployed and middle-class Americans who suffered the brunt of the current economic melt-down.

What is the possibility of social unrest in America? Will "the people" revolt if the politicians and the rich continue to rape the American people - sending their jobs overseas, foreclosing on their homes, denying them jobless benefits, insulting them, ignoring them, and leaving them to rot in the street and die? Or will they just silently suffer and passively accept their horrifying fates? (Read: "DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT" By Dylan Thomas)

What is the possibility of social unrest in America if after witnessing your neighbors, friends, and family members putting a gun to their head and squeezing the trigger because it was the ONLY option that the big banks, corporations, and our government leaders had left for them?

When will working Americans ever wake up to realize the plight and socio-economic destitution and desperation of the millions of jobless Americans living amongst them? And will they ever start standing up for their unemployed neighbors, or is it now much too late?

Maybe there should have already been social unrest in this country many years ago, and then maybe we wouldn't be where we are today. But maybe the anger is just now stirring, and the outrage is right now brewing in the cauldron of disenchantment, and is now close to being on the brink of boiling over any moment now.

One need not be a Socialist to hate corporate greed and political corruption - those that have been relentlessly forcing average people into poverty and death....one only need be a human being.

And if there ever is social unrest in American, may I suggest that Glenn Beck's office at News Corp (Fox News) in NYC be one of the first targets? If the 99ers are going to be accused of being nothing more than radical and dangerous Socialists, then what right do the 99ers have to deny Glenn Beck his fantasies and dreams?  

Original Source:
http://acompanyofone.org/social-unrest-in-america.html

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The Tier Five Times reports on the latest unemployment news such as the jobless numbers and unemployment benefits for "99ers" - those who have exhausted all unemployment insurance benefits.