The “ultimate question” is: do they really just want a whole lot of people to die? They bluster around the topic like that’s a question that you just don’t ask, but when you boil away all the BS, what’s left is: are you saying that you’re going to lock people out of any possible way to feed themselves and their children and just “let them figure it out for themselves”?
Oh, but that won’t happen this time, the elite control all the cannon, most of the muskets, the army is overwhelming, the peasants are weak from malnutrition, they’ll never succeed in a revolt, they’d be fools to try.
Well, there’s the whole “let them eat cake” narrative to go along with that - generations of uber-power and wealth don’t teach much in the way of street smarts. The French aristocracy had no personal concept or grasp or even inkling of what desperation felt like, what desperate starving people would be capable of - and there’s the true logic of it as well: after they revolted conditions did actually get worse - as everyone predicted - but that didn’t matter: as you say, there’s no point in hanging on to a pitiful existence through obesiance just because it might be more pitiful for a generation if you revolt.
The “ultimate question” is: do they really just want a whole lot of people to die? They bluster around the topic like that’s a question that you just don’t ask, but when you boil away all the BS, what’s left is: are you saying that you’re going to lock people out of any possible way to feed themselves and their children and just “let them figure it out for themselves”?
You must remember one thing. The 1% are called the 1% because we are the 99%.
So when we’re left to “figure it out for ourselfs” in a life or death situation, historically speaking the end result is revolt and revolution.
Oh, but that won’t happen this time, the elite control all the cannon, most of the muskets, the army is overwhelming, the peasants are weak from malnutrition, they’ll never succeed in a revolt, they’d be fools to try.
The scenario I’m saying is they either succeed, or they die. Why would they be fools for trying, if they’re going to die otherwise?
Well, there’s the whole “let them eat cake” narrative to go along with that - generations of uber-power and wealth don’t teach much in the way of street smarts. The French aristocracy had no personal concept or grasp or even inkling of what desperation felt like, what desperate starving people would be capable of - and there’s the true logic of it as well: after they revolted conditions did actually get worse - as everyone predicted - but that didn’t matter: as you say, there’s no point in hanging on to a pitiful existence through obesiance just because it might be more pitiful for a generation if you revolt.