I've probably read half a dozen articles in the last few weeks trying to sell the "financial crisis will cause violent revolution" angle, with varying degrees of sympathy to the prospect, but because of my short attention span and generally dismissive attitude I've pretty much pushed them out of my mind.
However, the recent Real IRA attacks have given me pause over that. Although it's very anecdotal, it's a really good anecdote. A settled issue, with previously no popular support for violence, has suddenly resurfaced, in the developed nation that has probably had the most dramatic reversal of fortunes in the global financial crisis. (Well, not technically IN it, but let's not be pedantic.) Combined with a little bit of time spent with the notion of the Depression causing German support for Nazism, and suddenly I'm coming over to the other side.
Certainly the long-suffering socialists are keen on the idea. Tune in to Phillip Adams on Late Night Live anytime you feel like hearing an old pinko gloating.
However, one could argue that this is a revival of an anti-globalisation and subtextually anti-capitalist movement that has been sleeping for a while - which I guess is a contribution we can chalk up to Bush, as it's hard to get angry about the relaxing of tariffs and foreign investment regulations when someone's torturing innocent people because they're easier to catch than terrorists. Ironically Bush has probably done more to threaten capitalism than anyone since Stalin, by fueling a massive debt bubble while undermining the world economy with almost deliberately incompetent wars, and simultaneously inspiring the organisation of vast grassroots networks of leftists. He got them mad, he got them marching and he gave them a pretext.
So maybe we'll see a return to marching in the streets. The protest bunnies have always horrified me with their incoherent, intellectually bankrupt ideas and methods that seem to be a lot more geared towards trying to impress girls than accomplishing any sort of change. Still, in a way I hope for a massive protest movement to erupt. I miss those innocent days when I could be outraged over the terrible violation of civil rights that was riot police breaking up peaceful protests. Well, actually that's a way of covering with irony the sick heaviness of knowing that more people will die to accomplish nothing, but saying it is a bit of a downer, isn't it?
On a peripherally related note, here's another good article by Ross Gittins on the recession.
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