Most students of history could list a string of events that caused people to rise up in revolt. From the Peasants Revolt, the French Revolution, the Watts Riots, to the recent Black Lives Matter. Ordinary people, aggrieved by what they saw as injustice or unfairness gathered together and demonstrated against those they believed in control of society. Some demonstrations were peaceful while others were not. Historically, outcomes were sometimes bloody and destructive with thousands losing their lives. Other times revolts brought success and changed the course of history. America is the product of Revolution. Almost always there were reasons such as despair, religious differences, frustration, abject poverty, powerlessness. People felt they had nothing to lose. Protesting and risking their lives against authority was a way of establishing their existence in the world, a way of saying they did not feel invested in society because society didn't appear to care about them.

Almost 70% of the wealth of the United States is owned by 10% of its people. Our financial system has made a lot of people rich but is that wealth then shared fairly? Granted it is shared through IRAs and mortgage incentives so that people feel ownership. Unfortunately, our present version of unbridled capitalism based on incentivizing people allows the rich to get richer and the poor to just make a living if they can. The pandemic has exposed how those who only earn a basic living wage face the greatest risk. The corrupt and venal with their expensive lawyers can indulge every vice that their imaginations can dream up.

The horror expressed by the white privileged about the Portland riots is the reaction to the idea that someone is destroying property, ownership of which being one of the sacrosanct columns supporting the wealth system. But all that effort expended in protest so far in Arizona has resulted in the removal of one plaque and a lot of talk in the press. Nothing appears to be getting done. The Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence are pieces of paper as they have been since the Founding Fathers, mostly slave owners, wrote them. If you are Black or Latino and an immigrant or illegal or part of the original tribes who were crushed to found the American white Empire, you are not equal. To protect the Empire and the privileged, the state has built up semi-military police forces equipped with weapons of war to intimidate and control anyone deemed behaving inappropriately. Those who own the society will tell you that these forces are to protect you but in reality its there to maintain the system of privilege. If we have true justice and fairness why do we continue to have riots, and protests, and anger erupting every few years? It is simply because the real issue of ensuring that all people are invested in the society they live in has been ignored. For a healthy, peaceful society, we should be one of inclusion not exclusion. Exclusion is paid for with social unrest and crime, packed prisons, poor housing, social disruption and insecurity.

If we looked outside ourselves, it would be inspiring that Singapore, a little tinderbox of a country with every racial group under the sun, has gone from Third World to First World in one lifetime. They do not have riots, do not burn buildings and have controlled their pandemic. The basic reason for this is because everyone is invested in the society, can do well, has affordable healthcare, has a government which is not corrupt, pays into an IRA with which they can use to buy property and pay for schooling for their kids or invest. The Malays, the original inhabitants of the island before the whites, Chinese and Indians arrived, enjoy special privileges. All groups are represented in government and the civil service. It's a fair society where education is central to its development and despite being a tiny island with no resources other than their brains, hard work and physical location, it gives everyone a fair slice of the cake provided they work hard and obey the rules.

Coming from the very top echelons, racism infects our society; inequalities destroy opportunity, our public media, under cover of the First Amendment print or say anything if it makes money. There is no accountability. The masses cannot distinguish truth from lies; the different branches of government are politicized. The rot of doubt and insecurity is seeping through our legal system. Leadership is paralyzed. The turmoil goes on, the divisions like pieces of sandpaper are rubbed against each other and rich America, rudderless and without leadership sails on a foggy sea waiting for an iceberg. Arrogance is its Achilles heel and ignorance keeps the engines of state turning as we spend more and more of our wealth. We have allowed racial and economic inequalities to fester and the future is cloudy unless we alter course. The protests and our reaction to them will decide what sort of America we pass on to our children.