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Over 2,000 shell companies have directors aged 123 years or older, Moody's found. The oldest known human lived to 122 (fortune.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

I mean yeah, the French Revolution had 2.5 million combatant casualties in addition to 1 million civilian casualties, which was similar in population deaths relative to World War One for France.

If estimates are correct, the French population was around 28 million at the eve of the French Revolution. 3.5 million deaths is 12.5 percent of the population of the country at that time.

So if violent revolution has any historical accuracy, the population of 330 million in the US today would mean that more than the entire population of France during the French Revolution would die (41 million people)

I’m not arguing that revolution isn’t the answer, but a casual “overthrow the government” is a significant loss of human life to achieve said goals.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Had the ancien régime been allowed to remain in power, it's likely it would have killed far more people.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t say that wasn’t that case, just that to get people to agree to something that drastic normally requires more significant impact on their day to day lives. By convincing many of the current population they are “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” the upper class have done very well at ensuring that many are “just comfortable enough” to do very little while they are moved into a system built to capitalize on their labor and keep them under control

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

But i do love fig newtons

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

you're almost certainly right, but if you're wondering why people are hesitant to initiate a revolution 3.5 million deaths is a pretty good explanation

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Misleading. That number includes deaths in the Napoleonic Wars.

The Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars were not a necessary consequence of the Revolution. They were largely triggered by European monarchs attempting to make the world safe for tyranny.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I think the US is the only country where a revolution might be able to happen without the other western powers themselves coming in to put it down and save capitalism (assuming it's an anti-capitalist revolution).

But I'm not even sure that it wouldn't happen to the US. The ruling class will pull out all of the stops to save their power (with the added incentive that it might also save their lives because of how successful revolutions tend to go for those at the top).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

All rights are won through violence.