You say you want a revolution?

This is the most dangerous piece of writing I've seen lately.

One might think, given all the anti-NSA pieces I have written, that I would favor the author's unsubtle suggestion that America is now in a pre-revolutionary state. But I don't like this idea at all:

Though people have taken to the streets from Egypt, to Ukraine, to Venezuela to Thailand, many have wondered whether Americans would ever resist the increasing encroachments on their freedom. I think they've begun.

Given the evidence that a couple of these rebellions were egged on (or ginned up) by outsiders -- and given the fact that all three rebellions were directed against democracies -- I hardly want to see that history repeated in this country.

What we need is more and better democracy. In a very real sense, that means more and better government. Many people forget the simple fact that democracy is a form of government -- the highest form. Therefore, if you say that you are anti-government, you are saying that you are anti-democracy.

An uprising led by gun-toting Tea Party types is likely to install Libertarianism and theocracy -- the opposite of democracy. The more honest Libertarians are honest about their hatred of democracy. Only a fool would think that giving more freedom to the corporations and the one-percenters will bestow more freedom on rest of us.

Mark my words: Any rebellion in America will be bought and paid-for by the Libertarians.

Allow me to repeat these words from the previous post on the made-in-Washington Ukraine coup:

Paradoxically enough, perhaps my readers will now better understand why I never want to see a revolution in this country. Rebellions can be hijacked: This is the great lesson of Syria, the Ukraine and now Venezuela. The neo-liberals (or libertarians) are superb hijackers. They know how to disguise themselves. They know how to make outside manipulation appear to be the work of disaffected grassroots dissenters.

If you haven't read The Shock Doctrine by now, you really should.

By the way -- can you spot the contradiction between the headline and sub-head of the above-linked article?

"Government" is not the ruling class. That's the big lie that the Libertarians keep pushing. It's just not true.

Rich people are the ruling class. If you are going to talk about a "ruling class" or any other class, then like it or not, you are going to have to speak purely in terms of social (i.e., economic) class. Americans hate to do so, but any use of the word "class" forces the issue.

Yes, too often in our history the rich have purchased politicians. But there's another lesson from history that many tend to forget: Ultimately, the only tool that has ever kept unbridled avarice from destroying our civilization is...government.

Not authoritarian or totalitarian or plutocratic government.

Truly democratic government.

That was the lesson of the New Deal -- a social/political movement which brought about four decades of the greatest prosperity this country has ever known.

Libertarians keep lying about that history. The success of their project depends on hiding the truth from an ignorant younger generation.

The libertarians want a rebellion, because they think -- probably accurately -- they can control it, and use it to rid this country of the pesky, democratic encumbrances that they still face. Encumbrances like the Constitution. That's why, once again, they're talking about holding a new Constitutional Convention. Do you want to see the foundational law of our land re-written by people who think like Roger Ailes?

The insurrection I see coming is one that will install an out-and-out plutocracy. If you think we live in a plutocracy now -- wake up. It can get worse. A lot worse.

End result: A nightmarish new America located somewhere between Ayn Rand's wet dreams and The Handmaid's Tale. "Privatized" Social Security. Drastic inequality between a shrinking ultra-wealthy class and a starving peasantry. No regulation on pollution.

Although the Libertarians will never admit it, once democracy is removed and state power falls completely into the hands of the ultra-rich, the government will become even more intrusive, omnipresent, interventionist and belligerent than it is now. The rich will suddenly decide that they like taxes after all, once they can place the tax burden entirely on the backs of the poor.

The rich (and their paid-for propagandists) may talk freedom. They use words like "freedom" and "liberty" all the damned time. But when they use those terms, they refer only to the freedom of the wealthy man to stomp his boot into your face -- forever.

Remember that last episode of Sherlock? Remember the Rupert Murdoch-esque magnate flicking his fingers in the face of John Watson? Libertarians cum when they think of that scene.

You say you want a revolution? Count me out.