YES, I see the parallel you draw — the bread, the anger, the desperation that spills once the dam of endurance cracks. AND yet, something in me resists the comparison. Because the French system, beneath all its cruelty, rested on an old code of care — communitarian, relational, class-bound yet still carrying a sense of mutual duty. Even within hierarchy, there was the faint idea of stewardship, of dignity attached to belonging.
The American system was built on an entirely different rootstock. From the beginning it replaced people with property. It declared that freedom meant ownership — not of self, yet of land, of bodies, of labor. That shift from care to conquest is the original fracture.
So yes, the people may rise again — as they did in France — yet it will rise from a different soil. The French rage was relational: they marched because the king had broken an unspoken contract of responsibility. The American rage is transactional: it grows from betrayal inside a system that was never relational to begin with.
People sense this now. They sense how deeply out of control the current regime is — not in the predictable decadence of Versailles, but in the erratic chaos of an empire that believes it can purchase eternity. And they fear both the collapse and what might follow it. They fear their own power as much as the regime’s retaliation.
There is a dam — yes. A trembling wall of fear, anger, exhaustion. And behind it, the same hunger: for bread, for dignity, for a life that still feels human.
Yet when that dam breaks, it won’t echo 1789. It will sound like something new entirely — the noise of a people remembering what care once meant before property became the god
That's a big part of the problem we're facing. I saw some numbers recently about the percentage of single residential properties owned by private equity in big cities. It blew me away. I don't have links handy, but I've been planning to write one of my footnote-heavy posts on it soon. Lots of research involved, so I've avoided doing it so far, but one of these days I'll get to it.
Charles, thanks. Yes, property over people is the single biggest constitutional problem the U.S. has. What do you think happens when all those farmers are bankrupt? The blueprints are the same as for house owners no longer able to pay the mortgage. I cannot tell where I read it, and here’s what’s going to happen to both: Once bankruptcy is filed miraculously a white clad black knight in shining armor will arrive at the doorstep. Hey I can help you. I’ll bail you out, you’ll keep working and rent back from me. They are signing their slavery document, that’s feudalism of the Middle Ages. The big land owner leases the farmers and demand their ever growing share from the farmer who now owns nothing. They are already doing basically the same with house owners, who subsequently have to move out because they can no longer afford the rent that is by then higher as the down payment, and they still have to do and pay for all the renovations and repairs. That is slavery in my opinion, not free will. That is the pinnacle of oppression and the maximizing of profits and property from the elites
The private equity problem, i.e., property, goes well beyond the acquisition of single-family dwellings. Private equity buys up businesses, then sells off the real estate, leaving the company with rental payments that will eventually bankrupt it. The driver of private equity is the ultrawealthy seeking investments with high ROI. Over the years, the ultrawealthy have also lobbied Congress to enact various tax code changes that give them significant advantages not enjoyed by the rest of us. The critical event was the Citizens United decision, the result of a carefully constructed series of cases, that freed up the ultrawealthy to buy control of our government. Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation carefully planned the "overthrow" (deconstruction of the regulatory agencies) of that government, which is what we are currently experiencing. The critical question is how can we take our country back from the ultrawealthy.
Roger, I also believe the real turning point came long before Citizens United. The root lies in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886, when the Supreme Court granted corporations protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. From that moment on, property gained the legal standing of a person.
Everything unfolding now grows from that seed — the tax code, the lobby system, the takeover of land, homes, and companies. It all serves the same design: to place ownership above life and law. Citizens United only confirmed what had already become the core of the American system — property as the true citizen, and people as its expendable infrastructure.
I see this exactly as you describe. My focus stayed on farms and homeowners because that alone already paints a vast landscape. Yet what unfolds reaches far beyond.
What I see happening in the United States feels systemic and intentional. Those who already own almost everything now move to buy everything else.
A new form of slavery is forming—rooted in ownership, sanctioned through law, and stripped of protection for those outside the privileged circle. The Bill of Rights and Constitutional safeguards are already being dismantled, and once the Article 5 Convention redefines the foundation, only the white, heterosexual, wealthy elite will retain full rights. Everyone else will live under their control, bound through debt, dependency, and dispossession. That is the dystopia I see unfolding, and it feels far less imagined than imminent.
I'm fascinated by Zohran Mamdani's campaign. He's the complete opposite of any current elected official or any official candidate. He clearly illustrates everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party, which is part of the problem and not part of the solution. We need more like him, many more.
I think what makes Mamdani’s work so new is how he brings a kind of positive duty of care into American politics. The Constitution was written around protection from government and property over people, never responsibility through it . Mamdani moves from freedom as defense to freedom as provision — housing, transit, child-care, daily dignity.
That shift feels radical in the American context because it asks the state to care, not just to stay out of the way. It reintroduces relational duty into a system built on individual rights.
And that may be the most revolutionary act of all.
It's exciting stuff. I hope tonight is a huge win for him that prompts dozens more young people to say, “Hey, we can do this” as they dash off to their nearest secretary of state office to file election papers for themselves.
I see this exactly as you describe. My focus stayed on farms and homeowners because that alone already paints a vast landscape. Yet what unfolds reaches far beyond.
What I see happening in the United States feels systemic and intentional. Those who already own almost everything now move to buy everything else.
A new form of slavery is forming—rooted in ownership, sanctioned through law, and stripped of protection for those outside the privileged circle. The Bill of Rights and Constitutional safeguards are already being dismantled, and once the Article 5 Convention redefines the foundation, only the white, heterosexual, wealthy elite will retain full rights. Everyone else will live under their control, bound through debt, dependency, and dispossession. That is the dystopia I see unfolding, and it feels far less imagined than imminent.
That is a great article. I'm one of those weirdos who loves learning and reading about history but I especially appreciate the humorous asides and quips.
Thanks! I'm a history buff but my memory has never been good enough to fulfill my appreciation for it as well as I'd like. I would have been a horrible history teacher because if a student had asked for a specific detail, I'd have had to say, "I'm not sure. Let's look it up." Although maybe these days that's the right approach!
I’ve thought for some time the bunkers and compounds being built by oligarchs on islands and backcountry ranch mountainsides are their safe rooms in case of an American French Revolution. Little do these fools know that eventually their diesel tanks will run dry, their foodstuffs will rot and be vermin infested, their rainwater cisterns dry to a trickle from drought, their solar panels vandalized, and their island doorsteps be lapped by rising ocean waves and their backcountry lodge entrances consumed by wildfires. As if they really think their billions in crypto, gold, stocks, and cash are going to do them any good when dead.
this reminds me of the concert by the army chorus earlier this year. they performed “do you hear the people sing” and no one in that room kissing orange ass saw the irony. those chorus members were deadly serious and they DID understand the assignment.
I've poked around some of the Reddit military subreddits. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong ones or maybe Reddit doesn't attract the gung ho MAGA types, but the mood I detect is pure disgust.
Charles, Yes, and.
YES, I see the parallel you draw — the bread, the anger, the desperation that spills once the dam of endurance cracks. AND yet, something in me resists the comparison. Because the French system, beneath all its cruelty, rested on an old code of care — communitarian, relational, class-bound yet still carrying a sense of mutual duty. Even within hierarchy, there was the faint idea of stewardship, of dignity attached to belonging.
The American system was built on an entirely different rootstock. From the beginning it replaced people with property. It declared that freedom meant ownership — not of self, yet of land, of bodies, of labor. That shift from care to conquest is the original fracture.
So yes, the people may rise again — as they did in France — yet it will rise from a different soil. The French rage was relational: they marched because the king had broken an unspoken contract of responsibility. The American rage is transactional: it grows from betrayal inside a system that was never relational to begin with.
People sense this now. They sense how deeply out of control the current regime is — not in the predictable decadence of Versailles, but in the erratic chaos of an empire that believes it can purchase eternity. And they fear both the collapse and what might follow it. They fear their own power as much as the regime’s retaliation.
There is a dam — yes. A trembling wall of fear, anger, exhaustion. And behind it, the same hunger: for bread, for dignity, for a life that still feels human.
Yet when that dam breaks, it won’t echo 1789. It will sound like something new entirely — the noise of a people remembering what care once meant before property became the god
I like what you wrote more than what I wrote! :-)
Property.
That's a big part of the problem we're facing. I saw some numbers recently about the percentage of single residential properties owned by private equity in big cities. It blew me away. I don't have links handy, but I've been planning to write one of my footnote-heavy posts on it soon. Lots of research involved, so I've avoided doing it so far, but one of these days I'll get to it.
Thanks for the great comment.
Charles, thanks. Yes, property over people is the single biggest constitutional problem the U.S. has. What do you think happens when all those farmers are bankrupt? The blueprints are the same as for house owners no longer able to pay the mortgage. I cannot tell where I read it, and here’s what’s going to happen to both: Once bankruptcy is filed miraculously a white clad black knight in shining armor will arrive at the doorstep. Hey I can help you. I’ll bail you out, you’ll keep working and rent back from me. They are signing their slavery document, that’s feudalism of the Middle Ages. The big land owner leases the farmers and demand their ever growing share from the farmer who now owns nothing. They are already doing basically the same with house owners, who subsequently have to move out because they can no longer afford the rent that is by then higher as the down payment, and they still have to do and pay for all the renovations and repairs. That is slavery in my opinion, not free will. That is the pinnacle of oppression and the maximizing of profits and property from the elites
The private equity problem, i.e., property, goes well beyond the acquisition of single-family dwellings. Private equity buys up businesses, then sells off the real estate, leaving the company with rental payments that will eventually bankrupt it. The driver of private equity is the ultrawealthy seeking investments with high ROI. Over the years, the ultrawealthy have also lobbied Congress to enact various tax code changes that give them significant advantages not enjoyed by the rest of us. The critical event was the Citizens United decision, the result of a carefully constructed series of cases, that freed up the ultrawealthy to buy control of our government. Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation carefully planned the "overthrow" (deconstruction of the regulatory agencies) of that government, which is what we are currently experiencing. The critical question is how can we take our country back from the ultrawealthy.
Roger, I also believe the real turning point came long before Citizens United. The root lies in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad in 1886, when the Supreme Court granted corporations protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. From that moment on, property gained the legal standing of a person.
Everything unfolding now grows from that seed — the tax code, the lobby system, the takeover of land, homes, and companies. It all serves the same design: to place ownership above life and law. Citizens United only confirmed what had already become the core of the American system — property as the true citizen, and people as its expendable infrastructure.
Agree.
Thank you, Roger.
I see this exactly as you describe. My focus stayed on farms and homeowners because that alone already paints a vast landscape. Yet what unfolds reaches far beyond.
What I see happening in the United States feels systemic and intentional. Those who already own almost everything now move to buy everything else.
A new form of slavery is forming—rooted in ownership, sanctioned through law, and stripped of protection for those outside the privileged circle. The Bill of Rights and Constitutional safeguards are already being dismantled, and once the Article 5 Convention redefines the foundation, only the white, heterosexual, wealthy elite will retain full rights. Everyone else will live under their control, bound through debt, dependency, and dispossession. That is the dystopia I see unfolding, and it feels far less imagined than imminent.
Your last sentence says it all!
I'm fascinated by Zohran Mamdani's campaign. He's the complete opposite of any current elected official or any official candidate. He clearly illustrates everything that is wrong with the Democratic Party, which is part of the problem and not part of the solution. We need more like him, many more.
He's driving them stark, raving mad. So he's clearly on to something.
I think what makes Mamdani’s work so new is how he brings a kind of positive duty of care into American politics. The Constitution was written around protection from government and property over people, never responsibility through it . Mamdani moves from freedom as defense to freedom as provision — housing, transit, child-care, daily dignity.
That shift feels radical in the American context because it asks the state to care, not just to stay out of the way. It reintroduces relational duty into a system built on individual rights.
And that may be the most revolutionary act of all.
It's exciting stuff. I hope tonight is a huge win for him that prompts dozens more young people to say, “Hey, we can do this” as they dash off to their nearest secretary of state office to file election papers for themselves.
Thank you, Roger.
I see this exactly as you describe. My focus stayed on farms and homeowners because that alone already paints a vast landscape. Yet what unfolds reaches far beyond.
What I see happening in the United States feels systemic and intentional. Those who already own almost everything now move to buy everything else.
A new form of slavery is forming—rooted in ownership, sanctioned through law, and stripped of protection for those outside the privileged circle. The Bill of Rights and Constitutional safeguards are already being dismantled, and once the Article 5 Convention redefines the foundation, only the white, heterosexual, wealthy elite will retain full rights. Everyone else will live under their control, bound through debt, dependency, and dispossession. That is the dystopia I see unfolding, and it feels far less imagined than imminent.
link to the army chorus performance of Do You Hear the People Sing. the irony was lost on most of the attendees but not on the choir members. 🫶https://youtu.be/pIQh_5dZUwI?si=lozqv1XcUUmkskH4
That is a great article. I'm one of those weirdos who loves learning and reading about history but I especially appreciate the humorous asides and quips.
Thanks! I'm a history buff but my memory has never been good enough to fulfill my appreciation for it as well as I'd like. I would have been a horrible history teacher because if a student had asked for a specific detail, I'd have had to say, "I'm not sure. Let's look it up." Although maybe these days that's the right approach!
I’ve thought for some time the bunkers and compounds being built by oligarchs on islands and backcountry ranch mountainsides are their safe rooms in case of an American French Revolution. Little do these fools know that eventually their diesel tanks will run dry, their foodstuffs will rot and be vermin infested, their rainwater cisterns dry to a trickle from drought, their solar panels vandalized, and their island doorsteps be lapped by rising ocean waves and their backcountry lodge entrances consumed by wildfires. As if they really think their billions in crypto, gold, stocks, and cash are going to do them any good when dead.
And worse, even if they were somehow the only survivors of their self inflicted Malthusian event, they'd all be stuck with each other.
In which case it might be the only time I (if I was still around) would not be upset by the mutations and die off caused by inbreeding.
History can be fun! Thanks for the dose of laughter this evening. I wish I shared your optimism.
You will soon! :-)
Excellent comparisons and beautiful writing!
Thank you! :-)
this reminds me of the concert by the army chorus earlier this year. they performed “do you hear the people sing” and no one in that room kissing orange ass saw the irony. those chorus members were deadly serious and they DID understand the assignment.
I've poked around some of the Reddit military subreddits. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong ones or maybe Reddit doesn't attract the gung ho MAGA types, but the mood I detect is pure disgust.