Fed up with corrupt elites

The Brexit vote, I believe, is largely a revolt against corrupt elites. To the average working person it's become apparent that the system concentrates wealth at the top. While England appeared to be doing well by economic indicators, the middle class people have been taking it on the chin. Their good jobs are gone.

Of course, that feeling is not just limited to Britain. The popularity of both Trump and even a previously unknown figure like Bernie Sanders is their willingness to attack the status quo. Hillery has the full backing of the establishment and is just barely hanging on.

There's a lot of hope that change will improve the lot of the common people. Unfortunately, recent history proves otherwise.

Anyone remember the Arab Spring? People rising up against their corrupt rulers? Wasn't that long ago. So how has that turned out? Egypt is once again run by a dictatorship. Libya is split into factions fighting each other. Syria is in a grinding civil war. Only Morocco has any sort of stability right now.

How about Afghanistan and Iraq? The places where the US has spent so much treasure and blood. In Afghanistan the Taliban are gaining ground again, mostly due to the corruption in Kabul. Why did so many Iraqi soldiers abandon their posts in the face of the ISIS threat? They did not want to die for an unpopular government in Baghdad. They didn't think their leaders were worth fighting for.

We are in a very dangerous time. The people upset with the elites are strong enough to sometimes overthrow them, but not strong enough to replace them. Political deadlock. Sounds a bit like the US Congress. At least here in the US we are still mostly fighting out battles at the ballot box. While it hasn't been any more successful than armed rebellion, it's a lot less bloody.

Some may object to me comparing the elites in Western Democracies to the elites in dictatorships. I think it's only a matter of degree. Those elites have more in common with each other than they do with the people they rule.

Where will it all end?

Will the elites get their act together and realize their connection with the rest of humanity and work to make our governing systems more fair and just? If they don't they have a fair a chance of hanging from lampposts so there's some incentive there.

Maybe the little people will get strong enough to rule without becoming corrupt elites themselves. I've only vague ideas how that would even work, but I'd like to think it can happen.

If it doesn't we get things like ISIS -a group that replaces corruption with horror.

I am curious to see how the British react when they discover that just because they voted to leave the EU doesn't mean the elites will allow their lives to get better.

Interesting times.

-Sixbears