Deep into the minutiae of Revolutions, the podcast and the phenomenon.

Two hundred years past, in the wake of the flawed revolutions in France and America, lots of smart people had lots of smart thoughts about how to reproduce the phenomenon and get it right. I’m fond of Bakunin in particular, though the fondness is distant and vague.

The last Czar of Russia took his throne in 1894, and on that occasion delivered the Tver Address, a defense of authoritarianism. He called opposing ideas, like letting the literal peasants have a voice in governing, “Senseless Dreams”.

It would take until 1917 for this notion to be fully rejected by the people he saw as the subjects to his authority. This revolution too would be flawed–you could say even worse, and maybe so, but arguing the case is just rearranging deck chairs on a ship that has already sailed, down and down.

Authority itself is the enemy, whether the claim of it is based on the will of a god, or on capital gains, or an alleged dictatorship of the masses.

Anyone who says so is going to be judged as fringe by the authoritarians of the upper right quadrant, which consists of almost anyone with a stick, or plans for obtaining a stick.

The stickmeisters can openly call themselves supremacists. Or they can say, “I don’t think people want a new direction. Our (authoritarian) values unify us …”

They can say that universal health care as a human right, in spite of what the people say, is a senseless dream. From the pocket of big pharma, they can reject even something as simple as the legalization of a benign and helpful weed, because that might begin to compromise the capital of their ruling class BFFs.

All the same.

When Johnny comes marching home again, I stand at the fringe, where I began.

The emperor is naked greed.