In Rome 493 BC, during a particularly arduous debt crisis and class struggle, the entire labor force withdrew from the city and encamped on a neighboring hill. The Elites (or Patricians, as they were known) maintained power and control - but of silent streets and empty businesses. There was no one left to handle the daily tasks that kept the Great Empire running. It was a brilliant tactic on the part of the plebs (the Roman equivalent of the 99%) and led to the creation of new officials, Tribunes of the People whose sole purpose was to protect the interests of the public.
Fast forward to 2011 and The Occupy/Anonymous Movements and the climate doesn't seem unfamiliar to that of Ancient Rome - greed, corruption, scandal. The public is vocally seething with frustration and blatant outrage at current socio-political events: the recent revelations of Goldman Sachs duplicitous management tactics, the inexcusable, contemptible financial bail out of corrupt lending houses on Wall Street, the Federal governments continued misappropriations of the American people's tax dollars. Unfortunately, unless the current group of uprisers can encourage the growth and solidarity of the average American into the millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions
Fast forward to 2011 and The Occupy/Anonymous Movements and the climate doesn't seem unfamiliar to that of Ancient Rome - greed, corruption, scandal. The public is vocally seething with frustration and blatant outrage at current socio-political events: the recent revelations of Goldman Sachs duplicitous management tactics, the inexcusable, contemptible financial bail out of corrupt lending houses on Wall Street, the Federal governments continued misappropriations of the American people's tax dollars. Unfortunately, unless the current group of uprisers can encourage the growth and solidarity of the average American into the millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions
