The Perfect Storm is generally thought to be weather related. The movie by that name came out in 2000. It was about how a number of various weather events coming together at the same time resulted in a massive storm off the New England coast. But the Perfect Storm is more generically know as shown below from Wikipedia:

A perfect storm is a confluence of events that drastically aggravates a situation.

This idea came off the top of my head lately. What if a confluence of political and economic events occurred in the country that drastically changed the situation? Would it be possible for us to suddenly and catastrophically fail as a country? As far as our extreme disparity of wealth goes we do have a similar occurrence from history and that was the French Revolution.

Here is how Wikipedia briefly explains that situation:

The French Revolution (French: Révolution française; 1789–1799), was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France that had a major impact on France and indeed all of Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from radical left-wing political groups, masses on the streets, and peasants in the countryside. Old ideas about tradition and hierarchy – of monarchy, aristocracy and religious authority – were abruptly overthrown by new Enlightenment principles of equality, citizenship and inalienable rights.

I don’t imagine that the French Revolution is taught much in schools today but maybe it should be.  You know the old saying that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.  It seems like many of the conditions today, especially the extremes of wealth, are pretty much the same as they were during that era. Those of us who are familiar with this period remember it primarily as “off-with-their-heads”. Almost all of the current leader of the period (primarily the monarchy) were shown up close and personal that latest invention known as the guillotine.

It only took three years for France to completely changes its existence. Could the same thing happen here?  Given the military might of the United States it would be extremely difficult to change our government by revolution.  The generals just wouldn’t allow that even from the country’s citizens. But, if the down trodden in this country and that will soon by pretty much all of us, learn of the power of the ballot extreme changes can occur quickly for our times also.

Are we approaching the “perfect storm” in our country. If it does come it will probably happen much faster than most would believe. Let’s just hope that if it does come it is a little more civil than the French Revolution was….