Putin's election was supposed to be safe and secure. The fix was in. None of the opposition was allowed to participate, voting boxes were stuffed, people were inundated with propaganda, but something interesting happened. Putin nearly lost!
The Russians were pretty blatant in their vote rigging. International observers were arrested and put in jail, and yet the vote was much closer than anticipated because the people came out in masses to vote against the Prime Minister.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Russ...Now there have been two days of protests in the streets.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story...The rich oligarchs in Russia control the vote much more effectively than the 1% manipulate the elections here. While here the 1% has hired their Republican henchmen to Gerrymander and to suppress the vote of up to 8 million potential Democratic voters, in Russia they are more blatant.
http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/s...This has been the generation of peaceful revolutions. They started in 1986 with the People Powered Revolution or the Yellow Revolution. There followed a bunch of color coded revolutions. "Serbia's Bulldozer Revolution (2000); Georgia's Rose Revolution (2003); Ukraine's Orange Revolution (2004); Lebanon's Cedar Revolution (2005); and Kuwait's Blue Revolution (2005). In most but not all cases, massive street protests followed disputed elections, or requests for fair elections, and led to the resignation or overthrow of leaders considered by their opponents to be authoritarian. In most cases Ghandis examples of peaceful protest and civil disobedience was successful."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revo...Now we have The Arab Spring with democracy breaking out in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and demonstrations throughout North Africa and the middle East which may soon yield more democracies.
In all of these cases the people, the 99%, are protesting the corruption and autocratic rules of tyrants that represent the rich and powerful, the 1%.
The writing is on the wall. Autocratic regimes are becoming harder to find, and democracy is spreading throughout the world.
At the same time the world is becoming a less dangerous and less violent place. In ancient times the chances of someone being killed by another human was about 15%. Now it is tiny. Despite all of the fear mongering from the right, we are living in the most peaceful times in our history.
http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07...Is the increase of civilization related to the decrease in violence? I think that is pretty clear. Totalitarian rule brings violence and warfare, and democracy brings peace and prosperity. This is called social evolution.
Occupy the World!