You say you want a revolution? Mass protests go global, as nations are rocked by mounting social, economic, and political pressures.
June 24, 2013 – CIVILIZATION – The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests. Within days this had become a nationwide movement whose concerns had spread far beyond fares: more than a million people were on the streets shouting about everything from corruption to the cost of living to the amount of money being spent on the World Cup. In Turkey, it was a similar story. A protest over the future of a city park in Istanbul – violently disrupted by police – snowballed too into something bigger, a wider-ranging political confrontation with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has scarcely been brought to a close by the clearing of Gezi Park. If the scenes have seemed familiar, it is because they shared common features: viral, loosely organized with fractured messages and mostly taking place in urban public locations. Unlike the protest movement of 1968 or even the end of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe in 1989, these are movements with few discernible leaders and with often conflicting ideologies. Their points of reference are not even necessarily ideological but take inspiration from other protests, including those of the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement. The result has been a wave of social movements – sometimes short-lived – from Wall St to Tel Aviv and from Istanbul to Rio de Janeiro, often engaging younger, better educated and wealthier members of society. What is striking for those who, like myself, have covered these protests is how discursive and open-ended they often are.
People go not necessarily to hear a message but to take over a location and discuss their discontents (even if the stunning consequence can be the fall of an autocratic leader such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak). If the “new protest” can be summed up, it is not in specifics of the complaints but in a wider idea about organization encapsulated on a banner spotted in Brazil last week: “We are the social network.” In Brazil, the varied banners underlined the difficulty of easy categorization as protesters held aloft signs expressing a range of demands from education reforms to free bus fares while denouncing the billions of public dollars spent on stadiums for the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics two years later. “It’s sort of a Catch-22,” Rodrigues da Cunha, a 63-year-old protester, said. “On the one hand we need some sort of leadership, on the other we don’t want this to be compromised by being affiliated with any political party.” As the Economist pointed out last week, while mass movements in Britain, France, Sweden and Turkey have been inspired by a variety of causes, including falling living standards, authoritarian government and worries about immigration, Brazil does not fit the picture, with youth unemployment at a record low and the country enjoying the biggest leap in living standards in its history. Paul Mason, economics editor of BBC2’s Newsnight and author of Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions, has argued that a key factor, largely driven by new communication technologies, is that people have not only a better understanding of power but are more aware of its abuse, both economically and politically. Mason believes we are in the midst of a “revolution caused by the near collapse of free-market capitalism combined with an upswing in technical innovation” – but not everyone is so convinced. What does ring true, however, is his assertion that a driving force from Tahrir Square to Occupy is a redefinition of notions of both what “freedom” means and its relationship to governments that seem ever more distant. –NZ Herald
Police disperse mass protest in Brazil: June 2013
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….and those who rebel and take over power are usually just as corrupt as the one’s they overthrow….
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We need a revolution, the current system isn’t working for 99% of us.
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I believe the tide changed when the whole world watched Egyptians out Mubarak by protests alone in 2011. Even with what is going on in Syria, the world has seen the power of mass protesting and when people in individual countries get to their breaking points, they now know exactly what to do.
The problem is the organized groups with sinister plans that eventually coopt these “revolutions”. That’s when it all goes wrong. Syria is the prime and devastating example of this.
Also, US will see nothing like this until there is a complete breakdown of services, goods, entertainment and the economy. Most of us are just too comfortable to care right now. By then though, it will be too late.
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OK, discursive has a double meaning. Choose one.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
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Free-market capitalism? Where is that? Not on this planet! Everything is interference by central banks, strangulating government regulations, and the lack of sound money. But it’s so predictable that free-market capitalism will once more be blamed for disaster arising yet again from the lack of it.
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The world is definitely on edge. With each passing day it seems a new precedent is set for the next. While many have known about operations such as the NSA spying scandal it is now official. More details like this will come to the surface and more fascistic policies will come forth from the scandals we are witnessing daily.
I wonder how many atheists are scratching their heads concerning the events surrounding Damascus with its relation to God’s Word…
Hang tight folks things will continue to snow ball. These are the birth pains of a new age.
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Amen..
The birthpains can be seen everywhere.
Problem: not many can see the the truth
Solution: spread the word of god and the prophecies of jesus second coming
“When no one speaks prophetic words the stones will do it”
Thats pretty much what happens right now with the earthchanges and signs in heaven/universe
(Computers have stones to)
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It is not a collapse of “Free Market Capitalism”. Corporatism is the problem.
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Hebrews 13:15 King James Version (KJV)
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
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Scary but God!!! Its long past time to awaken from our drugged sleep, Obama being the drug. We have a very duped electorate!!! Has there ever been a time like this? What Obama has done to this country is scary. It should scare you as well. The Obama Socialist movement will continue if not stopped. It is scary that an unknown man with sealed records about his entire existence became President of the United States. Don’t you find that scary! Given his association with communists & terrorists, a military background check would have long ago disqualified Barry Soetoro (Barack Obama’s birth name) for the job of United States President. With his associations, the Chicago Police Department or hundreds of other agencies could not employ Obama. Yet, he is president – something is very wrong with our focus! Barry Soetoro would not be authorized for access to the White House toilet much less access for the codes for US nuclear weapons. The USA has surrendered to an enemy within. A divisive America has accepted fiction as fact and lies as truth. A secret war rages across America!
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