History doesn't repeat, but it has a kind of familiarity. And as the Byrds (or should I say Solomon) would say "there is a season...turn, turn, turn."
I was reading James North short, concise "A History of the Church" and noticed the pre-conditions* for the French Revolution were eerily similar to the conditions of today. As then, so today, it is very hard to know what the spark will be, but when it explodes the social order changes fast. If you need any convincing that that can happen today, look at how quickly the Arab Spring upended the status quo is a number of countries with lingering effect elsewhere.
To quote, "The immediate cause of the beginning of the French Revolution was the bankruptcy of the state. Financial mismanagement had been an unresolved problem in France for some time...the people had plenty of complaints against the government, chief of which was that the nobility and the clergy were escaping most of the taxes. While the assembly began to restructure the tax and social structure of the country, the mob stormed the Bastille on July 14. By August 4 the entire feudal structure of France, with special privileges enjoyed by aristocracy and clergy, was demolished."
*Pre-conditions were a corrupt, bankrupt state and uber-wealthy living off an inequitable tax burden placed upon the middle class.
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