Some interesting things I've noted over past year are:
- Protesting died, the final nail in its coffin was the largely ignored G20 riots in Germany. I don't mean it was ignored by most people, but ignored by our self-appointed billionaire "leaders". The only comments they can muster up are things like "they should all be shot" or "we're investigating all this police brutality". They basically had a big hoity toity party at taxpayers' expense and then left behind a smashed up city. Not a word was said about the poor or inequality, but plenty was said about securing rich people, their property, and their access to the whole world's resources.
- Fake news and propaganda.
- Election rigging.
If you look at history, you will see a pattern where people get fed up and just start burning things, killing, breaking things, etc. It's usually after a long, protracted fight against injustices. Recently, there has been a more globalized network of people that are largely divided into the "haves" and "have-nots". The haves run around with heavy security escorts and only go where the have-nots can't go. They make all the decisions and reward themselves lavishly for going to parties and standing around looking important.
Meanwhile, the have-nots are figuring this out. They're starting to understand how elections are rigged and how their fate is decided by the haves. They are beginning to understand that globalization didn't lift millions out of poverty, but instead it made extracting wealth from the poor much easier. When you tell a person they're not poor because they get $1.91/day, and the poverty level is set at $1.90, they think you're full of crap. The same thing applies when you tell an unemployed person they're not unemployed because they've been unemployed too long. These lies only kick the can down the road a little longer. Eventually people become fatigued and stop listening. I think we may have reached that point. So what's next?
I see a lot of decentralization happening in many different areas. Bitcoin, bittorrent, bitnation, ethereum, etc. I also see how this conflicts with centralized control by the haves. We now have nation-states trying to control these decentralized systems in some cases and a lot of very upset have-nots. What will the have-nots do if the haves take away their bitcoins and bittorrents? This could become a contentious issue. I believe that the haves will try to crackdown, which they're already doing by going after Kodi users, repealing net neutrality, taxing bitcoins, etc. I can't imagine the have-nots just bending over and getting screwed again. Will they get fed up? When is it enough?