Right now the gap between people with average or below incomes and the super-rich is widening, which makes me wonder if our society could ever reach stage one of Crane Brinton’s theory of revolution. I’m Michael Van Laethem and this is my blog.
First I need to explain who Crane Brinton is, and what his “theory of revolution” has to do with our society. Crane Brinton was an American historian who wrote a book called the “Anatomy of Revolution” which outlines four major revolutions and describes a revolution as a four-step “fever” that rises because of the increasing complaints of the people.
THE FOUR STAGES
In his book, Crane Brinton describes stage one as the preliminary stage, a sort of beginning stage that leads to the fall of the government. People start questioning authority; they feel wronged by their government and start to protest. The different classes start to show aggression against each other and the poor start fighting back to make life fairer for themselves. This is where the fever starts to rise. In stage two the moderates gain control and there is a better government, but protests increase and the government can’t stop the rebellion. Stage three is where everything goes crazy. The Radicals take control, war breaks out around cities, and violence increases dramatically. Stage four is the recovery stage, where the radicals are repressed, and there is a slow, uneven return to quieter times. Stage four is shaped by either by war or peace.
I believe that our society could reach stage one in Brinton’s theory of revolution because of the huge gap between the rich and poor. There are more billionaires and multi-millionaires in North America than ever before. The population of billionaires has increased from 41 in 1987 to 540 in 2016. 
While the number of Billionaires increases, many people are living at or near the poverty line. There have been studies showing that the wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015. This video bellow describes what poverty is, and how we can help tackle it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5qig9HIJ7k
And who wants to build a wall? Trump… I found this video very interesting, as it describes what poverty is, how people can fall into it, and how we can break the walls between those who are in power and those who feel wronged and feel the need to protest.
The difference today is that these people are not oppressed into silence. Instead they use social media, to organize protests to voice their discontent, stir up violence, upset social order and to rally behind polarizing candidates like Donald Trump. Some examples include Black Lives Matter, and extremist Christian groups like Westboro Baptist Church.
Crane Brinton’s theory is a very real and scary thing that could start to apply to our society. Let’s try to do everything we can to keep ourselves out of phase one.
Thanks for reading, and see you later,
Michael
These are some of the sites i used
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5qig9HIJ7k
http://www.statista.com/statistics/220093/number-of-billionaires-in-the-united-states/
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