Forget Q -- Our Current Political Instability Was Predicted in 2010

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newarkvol

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There was a short thread about this in 2013- cliodynamics- predicting the future with mathematics

I believe it has acquired more relevance as of late.

Peter Turchin: A pioneer of cliodynamics employs multiple disciplinary perspectives, ranging from mathematics and statistics to anthropology and complex systems theory, as well as vast troves of historical data to identify patterns of sociopolitical instability over the centuries. It is, in essence, an attempt to identify why states rise and fall and then use this knowledge to make predictions about the future

Will the US Really Experience a Violent Upheaval in 2020? | Live Science
Mathematician predicted violent upheaval in 2020 all the way back in 2012 | Live Science

Very short summary of Turchin's position:
"...what creates the risk of political instability is the behavior of elites, who all too often react to long-term increases in population by committing three cardinal sins. First, faced with a surge of labor that dampens growth in wages and productivity, elites seek to take a larger portion of economic gains for themselves, driving up inequality. Second, facing greater competition for elite wealth and status, they tighten up the path to mobility to favor themselves and their progeny. For example, in an increasingly meritocratic society, elites could keep places at top universities limited and raise the entry requirements and costs in ways that favor the children of those who had already succeeded. Third, anxious to hold on to their rising fortunes, they do all they can to resist taxation of their wealth and profits, even if that means starving the government of needed revenues, leading to decaying infrastructure, declining public services and fast-rising government debts."

Intra-elite competition among elite aspirants:
"It is true that revolutions and protests, even those ostensibly about the working class or other downtrodden groups, have historically been a bourgeois thing — and 2020 is no different.
"The wider 'Great Awokening,' of which the 2020 disturbances are a part, is a very elite phenomenon, with progressive activists nearly twice as likely as the average American to make more than $100,000 a year, nearly three times as likely to have a postgraduate degree, and only one-quarter as likely to be black. "

--Forget about the Culture War --It's just a symptom


Further reading:
Press
Political instability may be a contributor in the coming decade
Ages of Discord
Welcome To The ‘Turbulent Twenties’ - NOEMA
The real class war is within the rich by Janan Ganesh (Financial Times) -- (FOR LINK GO TO "PRESS" above)
George Floyd & Protests: More to Come? | National Review
Why the rich are revolting - UnHerd
Class War As Culture War | The American Conservative
The New Class War - American Affairs Journal
The New Class War Isn’t a Culture War
 
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This is not the point ---Gotta Read!

Focus on the argument: “elite overproduction” is a major underlying cause of political instability. The French Revolution was not primarily the product of misery but instead of a battle between an underemployed educated class and hereditary landowners. Historians identify “the problem of an excess of educated men” as contributing to Europe’s revolutions of 1848.

"Elite overproduction generally leads to more intra-elite competition that gradually undermines the spirit of cooperation, which is followed by ideological polarization and fragmentation of the political class. This happens because the more contenders there are, the more of them end up on the losing side. A large class of disgruntled elite-wannabes, often well-educated and highly capable, has been denied access to elite positions.
...“The next decade is likely to be a period of growing instability in the United States and western Europe,” he asserted, pointing in part to the “overproduction of young graduates with advanced degrees”.

Can too many brainy people be a dangerous thing?
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
 
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