By Megan Dobransky
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I was reading this article For Europe’s Middle-Class, Stagnant Wages Stunt Lifestyle on Thursday and was particularly taken by the people who were interviewed – one in France, one in Spain and one in Germany – all of whom mentioned something about a revolution and/or riot. These aren’t fringe extremists; they’re teachers, directors and union spokespeople, normal working people and they’re talking rather honestly and coolly about revolution.
“Revolution” is kind of thrown around a lot, but it’s a big concept. It would mark a complete change in all of our lives, and I wonder how close it might be to happening in our lifetimes.
What causes revolution anyway? Let’s look at some:
The American Revolution: We all know that part of this was caused because we wanted our damn tea and the British wanted to charge us a bunch for it. Jerks.
The French Revolution: Turns out that was caused, in part, by lack of bread.
The Club War: So called because the peasants rising up against the kingdom of Sweden in 1596 couldn’t afford proper swords or muskets so they had to fight with maces and clubs.
The Whiskey Rebellion in 1794: Due to high taxes that made it harder to buy and sell whiskey and other spirits, people totally freaked out. It even included tar and feathering.
The point is when we, as humans, are so used to having stuff and being able to buy that stuff and then suddenly it’s taken away or becomes really hard to get, we can get really, really pissed off. And it always starts with the normal working people.
María Salgado – the 37-year-old Spanish director of television documentaries that makes the same amount she did when she was 23, but can’t afford the same things – touched on it in the article. “And if you have lived well, it’s hard to live so badly.”
We have trouble making those changes sometimes, moving backwards instead of forwards.
There’s already been food riots recently – you know, because the price of rice has increased 217 percent and corn by 125 percent since 2006. (Other startling statistics can be found here.)
So who knows? Maybe the revolution has already begun!
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