Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions

by Paul Mason

The world is facing a wave of uprisings, protests and Arab dictators swept away, public spaces occupied, slum-dwellers in revolt, cyberspace buzzing with utopian dreams. Events we were told were consigned to history—democratic revolt and social revolution—are being lived by millions of people.In this compelling new book, Paul Mason explores the causes and consequences of this great unrest. From Cairo to Athens, Wall Street and Westminster to Manila, Mason goes in search of the changes in society, technology and human behavior that have propelled a generation onto the streets in search of social justice. In a narrative that blends historical insight with first-person reportage, Mason shines a light on these new forms of activism, from the vast, agile networks of cyberprotest to the culture wars and tent camps of the #occupy movement. The events, says Mason, reflect the expanding power of the individual and call for new political alternatives to elite rule and global poverty.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Economics, Society, Sociology, Journalism

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2012

About the author

Note: Paul^^Mason

Paul Mason is an English journalist and broadcaster. He is economics editor of the BBC's Newsnight television programme and the author of several books.

Reviews

[Babak Fakhamzadeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting, to a large extent because the book gives a very close-to-the-ground retelling of the revolutions, or attempted revolutions, that happened over the past year or so, Mason also attempts to provide plausible reasoning for why, indeed, it's all kicking off now.

Mason claims that the are three reasons for this:

+ The demographics of the revolt.
+ The technology
+ Human behavior.

Though a bit vague at times, Mason does go on to describe a few identifiers that have recently come to a head.

The graduate with no future, implying disproportionately high youth unemployment rates, fosters frustration with the system in the younger generation. To illustrate, Mason eye-openingly quotes the sociologist Richard Sennett:

"For employers, the ideal product of school and university is a person with weak institutional loyalty, low levels of informal trust and high levels of anxiety about their own competence, leading to a constant willingness to reinvent themselves in a changing labour market. To survive in this world of zero tolerance, people need high self-reliance, which comes with a considerable sense of individual entitlement and little aptitude for permanent bonding. Flexibility being more important than knowledge, they are valued for the ability to discard acquired skills and learn new ones."

This highly connected workforce, very much based in the global city, has become collectively disillusioned over their own future not being as good as their parents, resulting in a fertile ground for a youth-led, city-based revolt.

Also, because of globalization, there actually *is* a fairly homogenous young, global, social class, each, in whichever country, more easily identifying with the same class in other countries.

Then, because the world has never been as educated as it is now, this disillusion amongst students and graduates spreads more easily to the working classes and working urban poor, simply because these students take their frustration home.

Then there's the network effect of the technologies used to mobilize, organize and communicate. In my opinion, Mason puts a tad too much trust in the infallibility of the networked world, claiming that the truth is faster than the lie. True, the value of technology, and it's wide acceptance, is undeniable, but even though, in the long run, truth, in a networked world, might prevail, lies and propaganda only need to survive long enough to have enough of a disruptive effect.

These networked technologies spilling over into real life, have created a networked society, which, by design, was perfectly positioned to disrupt more archaic, hierarchical systems.

However, Mason mostly glosses over something else, even though he does briefly mention it. All these popular uprisings from the last few years fail in not being able to provide an alternative to the world they are rising up against. In Mason's words, they do not seek to smash the system, they are looking for a place within the system.
Then, the networked nature of these revolts and the huge diversity of those involved surely can only contain the seeds of their own demise. The world is simply too diverse, not just from country to country, but within individual communities, first to allow for everyone to thrive well enough within the networked structure so typical of these uprisings, second, for a society to function in such a manner, that is, without an alternative model for how to run the world; a factory can not be run by a collective, the essential structure within these protests, it needs to be run by a hierarchy. If the networked world is willing to give up the fruits of industry's last 200 years, only then can this networked world be an option.

Case in point is Mason's description of the Greek revolt. Citing institutional fraud and tax evasion as a major driver for dissent, within one paragraph he mentions doctors claiming to earn 30000 USD a year, while driving 30000 USD cars and healthcare staff demonstrating against the government's austerity measures. Sorry? What are these people really demonstrating against? Their own historical fraud, perhaps?

So, I suggest, these revolutions from the last few years are, by design, doomed to fail, to the extent they might result in better circumstances for most of those involved, particularly in previously suppressive countries, but they can not provide an ideological alternative to the de-facto post-communism implementation of society, the capitalist democracy. Against which these revolutions in the west are revolting in the first place.

Mason does also provide an economic basis for these revolutions. Besides the somewhat banal monopolization of wealth with the global elite, the driver, Mason claims, was primarily globalization itself. With the introduction of some 1.5 billion laborers on the global marketplace, with the rise of China and the collapse of the soviet bloc unleashing their people on the world's stage, the amount of available global capital had to be redistributed amongst roughly twice the working population. At first, this was offset, in the developed world, by allowing for higher credit levels, higher credit card expenditures, funded by the extreme overvaluation of the housing market, until house prices peaked with the effective saturation of that market.
Then, when Lehman brothers went bust and the house of cards came tumbling down, it was only the strongest governments or transnational institutions, that is, those that were willing and able to eat the losses, that could withstand the onslaught. However, the majority crippled by their huge exposure, could not.
One symptom, the US's printing of over 2 trillion dollars, quantitative easing, with the aim of reducing the value of the dollar on the international markets, trying to make America a destination for more foreign investment, also had as a direct result higher inflation, most of which was offloaded to developing economies, often tied to the dollar through global exports and not being able to effectively deploy any long term economic policies to avoid this inflation by association.
Then, with the resulting steep price increase of basic foodstuffs, living on a few dollars a day, combined with high youth unemployment and no prospect of a future increase in the quality of life, indeed set the stage for unrest on a global scale.

But it can get worse. The monetary stimulus becoming currency manipulation, the possibility looms of trade wars and, eventually global debt defaults resulting in individualistic economic blocs, the end of globalism and, i suggest, the start of a new dark ages.

Indeed, the only eventual possible cushioning can come from China, emerging as the next global superpower, willing to accept the debt of the rest of the world to, slowly slowly, release the debt over decades to come and, with that, ease the economic collapse of the capitalist democracies that now are losing their economic dominance.

Or not. Mason seems to believe in the emergence of the collective of connected individuals who, from within the capitalist system, destroy the corporate control of society on the basis of free access to information. Interesting, sure, but this connected individual, without a grand plan and only interested in being part of collectives he chooses himself can simply not be the basis of any new world order. Unless it is one, I'd say, that is even more unequal than the one that's left behind. One, where not access to money matters, and where the state no longer provides support for the needy, but where authority and status is derived from whether you have enough Twitter followers.

But, with Mason drawing parallels with the European revolutions around the 1850s, the period before 1914 in the US called the Great Unrest and the revolts of the late 1960, it seems to me that a more likely outcome for the near future is a full scale war. With the worlds transnational elitist institutions being more threatened than ever, and having more to lose, no Crimean war, American civil war or first world war will be enough to stem the tide of change. The world needs to burn to save the ultracapitalists' status.

Trying to end on a more positive note, Mason relates his experiences visiting some slums in Manila. Somewhat interesting, but really only as a sidebar to the core of the book, which makes it feel like his publisher, not he himself, thought it necessary to tag on a few extra pages to warrant the full price.
Here, Mason argues that the world's slums, a far cry from Charles Dickens or George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier, now not only see much more solidarity and, through their connectedness are an integral part of the global community, they are also essential to the global economy. Undercutting the local regular workforce, it's the slum dwellers who keep local economies afloat. And, as a result, Mason argues, one part of the question is not how to eradicate slums, but how to improve the existence of those living in them.

[Dan Sharber · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. i loved this book! but i think part of it is i love paul mason's writing so much. this should be read as a companion piece to Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed or perhaps as an appendix to Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global both of which go well with this. what i think is great about this book is the romantic, revolutionary optimism that permeates all of his accounts. sure people are new to activism and perhaps have some bad ideas and the structures to allow things to go forward need to be built and maintained but man what a glorious time to be alive! to see the young fight for the interests of the old and the slum dwellers fighting alongside bank tellers is thrilling and inspiring... a pleasant surprise was also how much he goes into the role of technology. and his analysis is very refreshing. he does not believe that new social media etc are a panacea that will solve all the problems the left has suffered from but nor does he believe it is something sapping activists of energy by diverting it into online based campaigns. his view is more positive but with still an understanding of the limitations. another great thing about this book was how it reminded me of all the heady times last year of watching al jazeera on my computer at work as paid thugs on camels rushed tahrir or in 2009 watching (again al jazeera) as students in iran fought with regime supports. all of these scenes are woven together into a tapestry of change and revolt that sprung from the financial crisis still gripping the world. if you want another jolt of what you felt watching the state house in madison get occupied or the riot dog in athens reveling in the square (but also with a solid analysis to go with it) then this book is for you.

[Diogenes Grief · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually read the newest version of this book, and Mason puts his finger on the carotid artery of global unrest with incredible deftness, insight, and reflection on historical movements and first-person narratives with those on the front lines of dissent. "What the new Zeigeist clashes with are the power relations of the old hierarchical world. And this is the materialist explanation for 2011: it is as much about individuals versus hierarchies as it is about rich against poor." Two BILLION slum-dwellers by 2050, "the filthy secret of the modern mega-city, the hidden consequence of twenty years of untrammeled market forces, greed, neglect and graft."

We are all reaping the whirlwind.

[Odai Al-Saeed · Rating 3 out of 5]

منذ عام ٢٠١١ والشارع العربي لم يهدأ من جراء الأحداث التي توالت صانعة ثورات إمتدت الى غالبية دولنا وإستشرت عدواها مولدة فقر إثر فقر نال من شعوبنا فتشردت في بقاع الأرض .... هذا الكتاب يعرض بشكل مختصر أماكن إندلاع الثورات ودوافعها الكامنة مستعرضاً الحالة ليترك لك الإستنتاج حيث أنه يجانب الموضوعية الى حد ما ....جيد

[Karolina Libront · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciekawe, ale już trochę zdezaktualizowane. Poza tym sporo powtórzeń i brak spojrzenia mimo wszystko drugiej strony.

[Sarah Jaffe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Mason gets it. All of it.

[Alister Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Mason has become well known as the economics editor of Newsnight. He couldn’t have picked a better time to take up that post, he certainly has had no shortage of material. From the collapse of Lehman Brothers onwards, the crisis of capitalism has played out across the globe. But Mason hasn’t just stuck to stock prices and Bank of England statements. He has chased the story from the boardrooms to the streets. In this book he looks at the origins of the crisis and examines the wave of struggles erupting across the globe from Tahrir Square to Greece to the council estates of London. Finally he puts forward a thesis about the new layers involved in struggle, the new forms that this struggle is taking and the problems facing these worldwide rebellions.

Mason argues that post-2008 we are living in a new era. With the state stepping in to prop up banks on a vast scale, economically speaking the neo-liberal idea of the ‘small state’ is as dead as Stalinist Marxism.

The economic crisis has left a new generation of young people who had been co-opted by the system with promises of rising living standards, now facing unemployment and a poorer standard of living than their parents. Mason raises the spectre of new generations of bitter graduates plotting revolution from their bedsits, not unlike Paris in 1879 “but with one big difference, today in every garret is a laptop” (1)

This new generation has used the tools at their disposal to organise and take to the streets of Cairo, Tehran, Madrid, Athens, London, New York and beyond.

Mason is a little vague and contradictory about just how informed this new generation are, at times talking about the volumes of theory to be found around the typical student occupation and at other times saying that activists only want tweets or wiki summaries of theory. In likelihood elements of both are true.

Social Networks not Gunpowder

Speaking of the widespread use of the Guy Fawkes mask of his revolutionary anarchist character ‘V’ from the ‘V for Vendetta’ comic and movie, creator Alan Moore said “Today's response to similar oppressions seems to be one that is intelligent, constantly evolving and considerably more humane, and yet our character's borrowed Catholic revolutionary visage and his incongruously Puritan apparel are perhaps a reminder that unjust institutions may always be haunted by volatile 17th century spectres, even if today's uprisings are fuelled more by social networks than by gunpowder. Some ghosts never go away.” (1)
For Mason, the victory, albeit temporary, at Tahrir Square proves another pillar of his thesis, that the network will always beat the hierarchy. The network in this case means the flexible and responsive networks built through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Another example could be the V mask wearing ‘anonymous’ network who have used computer hacking to attack targets of greed and oppression from the banks to the security services.

But the network in itself is just a means of communication and coordination. It allows certain tactics that can be used to respond flexibly but it depends on access to those networks. The question of ownership of those networks is also key. Facebook has a business model that is built on selling your data. Oppressive governments can try to tap or block networks. But the network is just a tool, it is neither the solution nor the problem. Perhaps the next step will be to have new social media applications that are more decentralised and anonymous.
The struggles themselves are based on material conditions and class antagonisms. Networks can be useful but in a class struggle organisation such as a trade union or political party it is necessary to have structures that are accountable and transparent. Possibly some of the traditional organisations will need to look to the flexible tactics of the networks to survive and outmanoeuvre anti-trade union legislation and belligerent employers.

Diverging struggles

Mason looks at how the different groups who are involved in struggles relate to each other. On the one hand traditional organisations such as trade unions and political parties and on the other the new ‘horizontal’ groups such as arose from the student struggles, the ‘Occupy’ movement and the likes of UK Uncut and Anonymous.
The former, on paper at least, have more power. It was the trade unions on November 30th 2011 who put millions on the streets and shut down most of the public sector in the pensions dispute. The latter however have more élan and flexibility.

Whilst they have common interests they can quickly diverge in the realms of struggle. Mason gives the example of the large TUC anti-austerity demo on 26th March 2011 where the mass of trade unionists were entirely isolated from both the peaceful UK Uncut sit-ins and the violent Black Bloc mobilisation.

He writes “it was an advanced preview of the problem which youthful, socially networked, horizontalist movements would have everywhere once things got serious: the absence of strategy, the absence of a line of communication through which to speak to the union-organized workers. The limits, in short, of ‘propaganda of the deed’.” (3)

As struggles escalate that divide becomes sharper. In Greece it ended up with police leaving Communist union stewards to fight off anarchist youth who were trying to attack the parliament.

Building useful links that enable these groups to leverage each others strengths productively is key. Groups like the Coalition of Resistance can play a role in that (see Mhairi Mcalpine’s article elsewhere in this issue) but there is plenty room to build a wider unity.

A New Society

Mason looks at the Marxist idea of alienation and how Marx changed his views (for a more detailed view on this, this link is a good starting point). Mason argues that humanity has started to use the internet to build a ‘connected life’ and break out of alienation. He goes on to argue that this connectedness and collaborative aspects of information technology such as open-source software points towards ways a new society could potentially organise for the common good. This section is really just sketched out but contains plenty of food for thought.

Mason is very good at combining journalism and analysis to outline the context of the current wave of struggle and to outline some of the problems that have arisen. It will be up to those engaging in that struggle to sort these problems out and look to create new forms of organising that can unite all sectors of the movement.

(1) Paul Mason, ‘Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere – The New Global Revolutions’ page 73
(2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-...
(3) Paul Mason, Ibid, page 63

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book trying to do something too ambitious. It is easy to say this with 8 years of hindsight but I think this statement would still stand at the time.

The book is useful in connecting the rise of protest movements across the world with problems in the economic system. These protest movements represent an attempt to reclaim a politics that traded heterodoxy for consensus at the expense of those who didn't have a stake in the status quo. These protest movements undoubtedly shook the foundations of the status quo, however I think the optimism of the book is at times naive.

What Mason couldn't know, but there are symptoms of in some of his interactions, is the way that xenophobia and right wing populism would also rise. It seems the 1930s is a more apt comparison than the 1840s due to the response to an economic crisis and the rise of both right wing and left wing forces. These forces seem to be in battle with the capitalist realism of the status quo rather than imagining something outside of it.

His focus on the networked individual is interesting but is also when he is at his weakest. Recent movements would suggest that the weak bonds of networked individuals and the proliferation of fake news lead to simplification of politics rather than an increase in nuance. While the political spectrum has diversified constructive engagement seems to have become harder due to social networks not easier.

I would be interested to know what Mason makes of this book now. It is undoubtedly an important contribution to current affairs analysis, but has become quickly dated by its immediacy.

[Politiker · Rating 3 out of 5]

By Robert Smith (http://politiker.co.uk/2012/03/30/boo...)

It will long be remembered as the year of ‘the protestor’; as uprisings originating in the Arab world swept across the globe like a wild bushfire. Paul Mason, the economics editor of Newsnight, is therefore well placed to draw on his wide-ranging reportage in 2011 to answer the key question; how has this happened?

The global economy, troubled by a ‘shortfall between stagnating wages and increased consumption met by credit’, was bound to ‘explode’ Mason argues. Thus the influence of economics on the protests of today draws parallels to those in history; inflation correlates ‘closely with revolt: the higher the cost of bread, the more revolutionary the outcome’. Indeed, economic concern was so widespread in 2011 that the protests were populated by an unprecedented range of participants. Mason proposes three distinct socio-economic groups; the ‘graduate without a future’ of the discontented middle class, organized labour and the urban poor.

However, Mason argues that we cannot rely on economics as an explanation alone. If the uprisings are rampant flames, then technology rather than economics is the fuel spreading the fire. Social media, Mason argues, helped the movements ‘grow with dizzying rapidity’, observing the events in Tahrir Square as ‘a revolution planned on Facebook, organized on Twitter and broadcast to the world via YouTube’. As such, technophobes may find themselves horrified at the prevalence of social media references – certain protesters are referred to by their Twitter names for example – but despite the fact that ‘there is no quantitative research’ on the impact of social media ‘on politics and political campaigns’ Mason is by no means guilty of hyperbole.

Influenced by sociologist Barry Wellman, who ‘long before Facebook’ noticed that ‘people preferred to live with multiple networks, flat hierarchies and weak commitments’, Mason argues that a ‘networked individualism’ allows groups to form with the aim of completing only a single task. In many ways, this poses an interesting paradox to the ideas of Robert Putnam, who in Bowling Alone (1975) argued that a breakdown of ‘social capital’ had caused a disconnect between people and forms of social organization. Perhaps then, we’re still bowling alone, but online we’re in the company of millions.

The book loses momentum in the latter half, as Mason travels through the mid-west of the United States and the slums of Manila, describing, at odds with the general theme of the book, people who rather than ‘kicking off’, are tolerant, if not satisfied, with the troubled lives they live.

Notwithstanding the value of such first-hand experience of humanity, the downfall of Mason’s connection with the grass-roots is that he is occasionally guilty of failing to take into account a wider picture. Despite his BBC connections, he is unashamedly Neo-Marxist in his critique of the global system whereby the root problem is ‘globalization, and the resulting monopolization of wealth by a global elite’. A theme throughout the book is that amidst ‘the near collapse of free-market capitalism’ a ‘desire for individual freedom’ is fundamental to the uprisings. However, if Mason is so dissatisfied with the former then surely his attitude fails to accommodate the desires of his subjects; for if Mason knows of a global system which provides individual freedom in greater abundance than liberal democratic capitalism, he is yet to reveal it.

The book, and the movements it explores alike, can therefore be credited for raising logical points and intriguing questions, but denounced for failing to suggest valuable answers or alternatives. ‘The future hangs in the balance’ warns Mason. Perhaps then, the forthcoming ‘Reflections on Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere’, will provide more evidence of the way in which Mason believes the balance should tilt.

Robert Smith is Editor of Politiker. Follow on Twitter @RobertSmithUK

[Radosław Magiera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Już od jakiegoś czasu miałem w planach lekturę książki „Skąd ten bunt? Nowe światowe rewolucje” („Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions” 2012) pióra Paula Masona, współczesnego (ur. 1960) brytyjskiego dziennikarza i redaktora medialnego (nie mylić z jego rówieśnikiem Paulem Jonathanem Masonem znanym z tego, że jest jednym z największych spaślaków na świecie). Wybrałem wydanie Wydawnictwa Krytyki Politycznej z 2013 w miękkiej oprawie, do którego świetny wstęp napisał Edwin Bendyk, zaś tłumaczenie zawdzięczamy Michałowi Sutowskiemu.

O czym traktuje dzieło o tym, trzeba przyznać, dość intrygującym tytule? Najogólniej rzecz biorąc autor wziął na tapetę serię buntów, protestów i zamieszek, jaka w XXI wieku przetacza się przez świat. Próbuje odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy coś je łączy, czy mają coś wspólnego z rewolucjami w wiekach poprzednich, a jeśli tak, to co, co zaś je od poprzednich różni.

Manson podjął wyzwanie niezwykle ambitne i przygotował się do niego rzetelnie. Widać pracę włożoną w research, w pracę koncepcyjną, analityczną, a jego wiedza budzi szacunek. Nie uniknął jednak, w mojej ocenie, znaczących błędów w interpretacji kluczowych faktów.

W analizie dzisiejszych buntów wielką wagę przykłada do mediów sieciowych i z tym się zgadzam. Nie zgadzam się jednak z tym, że je przecenia; nie widzi ich negatywnych aspektów. Zbyt optymistycznie pokazuje mądrość sieci i jej odporność na manipulację. Zapomina, że zaraz po odkryciu sieciowej mądrości, odkryto zjawisko sieciowej głupoty, które wydaje się mieć niestety większą siłę. Unika mu, że internet bardziej nadaje się do buntu (współdziałania opartego na negacji) i niszczenia oraz do rewolucji, niż do ewolucji, współdziałania opartego na akceptacji czy tworzenia, które z natury w fazie koncepcyjnej jest tym bardziej indywidualne, im bardziej ma być oryginalne, nowatorskie oraz wymagające głębszego namysłu. Można też stwierdzić, że jak wielu wielbicieli internetu, myli wiedzę z informacją. Nie wspomina też nigdzie o dekoncentracji, jaką media społecznościowe tym intensywniej, im nowsze, wszczepiają w użytkowników, okaleczając wielu niezdolnością do dłuższej koncentracji na problemie, którego nie daje się natychmiast rozwiązać. Przecenia też średnią inteligencję populacji.

Ogólnie, cała książka mówi o rewolucji, o burzeniu, a nie o budowaniu. Jest w tym sens, bo rewolucja, w przeciwieństwie do ewolucji, zawsze jest tragedią i burzeniem. To, że nikt, ani władza, ani niezadowoleni, nie są zainteresowani ewolucją, nie wróży dobrze na przyszłość.

W niektórych momentach, na szczęście sporadycznych, perspektywa autora wyraźnie podlega wypaczeniu; presja poprawności politycznej? Na przykład, gdy przy wymienianiu hermetycznych ideologii w ogóle pomija islam, który chyba powinien był znaleźć się na czele listy.

Nie jest więc publikacja Masona opracowaniem, które by można przyjąć bez zastrzeżeń, bez korekty przez własne przemyślenia. Z drugiej strony rzecz biorąc, jest bezcenna przez podanie w jednym piekielnie dobrze przygotowanym materiale solidnych podstaw do własnych przemyśleń i interpretacji. Inna sprawa, iż wiele wniosków autora jest bardzo celnych i niestety one właśnie nie są optymistyczne.

Jak w każdym podobnym dziele, czerpiącym z historii, znajdujemy liczne perełki wiedzy; drobiazgi, ciekawostki, które zmieniają nasze spojrzenie i na inne problemy. Zachęcam do zwrócenia uwagi na szokujące wręcz implikacje wzmianki o manewrach USA „Millenium Challenge 2002” i taktyce roju. Można oglądać godzinami publicystykę w TV i nigdy nie usłyszeć na przykład o prawie SB1070 – rysuje się inny od mainstreamowego, niepokojący obraz USA,

Autor w trakcie swych rozważań niezwykle dociekliwie analizuje różne wybuchy protestu i prezentuje wybitny talent to ich zwięzłego podsumowania. I te podsumowania, które nie wiem czemu wydają się go napawać optymizmem, dla mnie są pesymistyczne. Pisze: „...zwykli ludzie (…) mają możliwość kształtowania warunków, w jakich żyją; zdobywania w ciągu jednego dnia tego, co na drodze normalnego postępu osiągali w ciągu wielu lat. Warstwy biedoty (…) posiadają faktycznie nadwyżkę najbardziej wartościowych własności na Ziemi: umiejętności, pomysłowości i inteligencji.” i zaraz dodaje, że „Zachodzi jednak niebezpieczny rozdźwięk pomiędzy tą masą ludzi, przede wszystkim młodych, a istniejącymi dziś strukturami i systemami politycznymi.” Ja to rozumiem w ten sposób, że udane protesty uczą masy, iż na drodze rewolucji można coś osiągnąć, więc lepiej doprowadzać do konfrontacji, niż starać się, by system pozytywnie ewoluował. Niestety widać tu też głupotę elit, która już zapomniała wszystkie te przeszłe rewolucje, masakry, królobójstwa, i za wyjątkiem państw skandynawskich coraz bardziej powiększają, mimo wzrostu dobrobytu, przepaść nie tylko między najbogatszymi a biednymi, ale nawet między najbogatszymi i klasą średnią. To prosty przepis na katastrofę w przyszłości.

Mason pisze: „Wydarzenia w Grecji mogą posłużyć za nowoczesne studium przypadku tego, co się dzieje, gdy polityczna elita kraju rozwiniętego puści swą legitymację do rządzenia z dymem. Zagrożone są wówczas demokracja i sama globalizacja. Umysły całego pokolenia zaczęły odwracać się od podtrzymujących je marzeń. I są powody do obaw, że społeczeństwo greckie nie jest wyjątkiem.” I tu się zgadzam z nim całej rozciągłości.

Polska jest krajem specyficznym, nawet wśród innych byłych demoludów. Lecz należy spytać, czy to, że pewne problemy, które u nas nie występują, nie sprawiają, iż nasze władze nie są tym bardziej ślepe na narastające zagrożenia?

Byłe demoludy z reguły nie mają slumsów, którym autor poświęca wiele miejsca, jako bardzo ważnemu aspektowi rozwijających się społeczeństw. Rodzi się we mnie pytanie, czy to uprzywilejowanie, czy objaw pewnych dysfunkcji?

Gdy myślę o narastającym w całym świecie oderwaniu władzy, polityków i systemów od ludzi i rzeczywistości, o mojej i nie tylko mojej, bo coraz powszechniejszej, negatywnej ich wizji, w książce Masona znajduję w wypowiedzi jednego z protestujących brytyjskich studentów sformułowanie, pod którym podpisuję się z pełnym przekonaniem, nie tylko jeśli chodzi o nasze rodzime realia: „…natura hierarchii jest taka, że tylko kretyni, dupowłazy i szumowiny mogą dostać się na szczyt.” Innymi słowy, co dokładnie tak formułuje i Paul Mason, „sedno wszystkich problemów tkwi w polityce”.

Nie wiem dlaczego po tym wszystkim, co się w dziele Masona znajduje, jednocześnie mam wrażenie, iż jest on optymistą. Sam wspomina, jak Alexis de Tocqueville w 1848, na kilka dni przed wybuchem rewolucji lutowej we Francji, przed Zgromadzeniem wypowiedział prorocze słowa: „Właśnie teraz sądzę, że śpimy na wulkanie”. I te słowa obrazują również naszą sytuację. A jak jest z wulkanami? Wiadomo – mogą walnąć Bóg wie kiedy, ale mogą i dziś.

Co do dalekosiężnego prorokowania właśnie, to w tym zakresie na „Skąd ten bunt…” za bardzo bym nie patrzył. O wiele lepiej wygląda tu Slavoj Žižek, kilkakrotnie zresztą przez Masona wspominany, i jego książka „Żądanie niemożliwego”, w której stawia tezę, że nie da się przewidzieć, jaki będzie następny ustrój, który wymyśli ludzkość, gdyż dopóki ten pomysł nie powstanie, będzie koncepcją równie niemożliwą do przewidzenia, jak kapitalizm czy komunizm w średniowieczu. Nad tym nie ma co łamać głowy. Prawdziwy problem, który ma znaczenie, i którym warto się zająć póki czas, to czy to nowe, gdy przyjdzie, ma nadejść w ogniu rewolucji, czy spokoju ewolucji. Niestety, zgadzam się z Masonem, że choć pragnę ewolucji, i mam nadzieję, że żadnej rewolucji nie dożyję, to nie ma co na pokojowe zmiany liczyć. Najbogatsi, władza i politycy kompletnie oderwali się od rzeczywistości i utracili kontakt merytoryczny ze społeczeństwami.

Gwoli ścisłości, choć Mason tego w swym dziele nie wyartykułował wprost, to można powiedzieć, iż pisząc, że Unia Europejska i w ogóle globalizacja w dzisiejszej formie nie przetrwa, przewidział niejako brexit, który nastąpił 8 lat później.

Reasumując – mimo wielu rzeczy, w których z autorem się nie zgadzam, lektura była fascynująca oraz inspirująca. I nie zepsuł tego nawet poziom redakcji tekstu – jest kilka momentów typu „moja twoja urwać ręka bo nie wiedzieć o co chodzi”. Jest też trochę niepoważnych końcówek, a szkoda, bo dzieło naprawdę warte zaliczenia do kategorii „must read”.

źródło: https://klub-aa.blogspot.com

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a complex and thoughtful, yet at times in-your-face, explanation of what the author saw happening and why he believes it was happening in 2011.

As youth movements merged with legions of suddenly unemployed middle-class people on the streets of Greece, while millions living in extreme poverty occupied squares in Egypt and global capitalism protestors occupied parts of London and New York, clearly a time of rapid change is upon us.

Mason was at times on the front line as a journalist covering a street riot, nodding greetings to other journalists with gas masks in between attending debates in rooms full of students who had no hope of getting jobs. I was surprised by how many of the young people he mixed with had been reading social theorists from many countries. If your degree is in social theory, just what job do you expect to get? However having been sold the idea that they should take a loan to pay for several years of studies in order to get a good job, they now find that the banks have collapsed and they still owe the banks money but there are no jobs. Globalism is partly to blame as jobs have been exported to cheaper countries.

So linking up smartly by means of new communications and social sites, the protestors have made their voices heard and in some cases crashed governments. I'm also surprised that Mason never mentions the obvious fore-runner of the mass protest - the flashmob.

Then Mason goes to look at the slum dwellers in those cheaper developing countries. An eight food square underground room is home to two adults and four children, who have next to nothing but use a computer café down the slum lane. They do the cheap jobs, so the nation's corrupt economy has come to depend on them, insanitary as their living conditions are. One billion people currently live like this, paying for water purchases. (See The Price Of Thirst by Karen Piper.) As they have not been used to paying bills, the power companies won't supply even rehoused families. Mason predicts that this number will smartly reach two billion. Well then, the obvious route would be to empower women not to have to have four or more children. He doesn't mention this at all. However with solar panels and smartphones, we can hope that the message will reach them.

Overall the chapters are at times an odd fit, obviously written up individually as the author travelled and referencing his blog and twitter feeds as well as those of others. Yes, the world is fast changing but we are seeing general backlash against giant corporations not paying taxes, while many jobless Greeks have left their deeply corrupt country to work in Germany. So the work could do with updating while at times seeming stuck in the distant French or Russian past. Certainly this is an interesting read for anyone who wants to be better informed, and for a look at journalism on the front line.

Try teaming this with: The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom by Joel Simon

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this coherent evaluation of the key uprisings and social movements that have been taking place over the last 18 months or so. Originally a blog piece outlining the ten reasons why seemingly unrelated protests have emerged around the world in a contagion which has baffled governments, Mason has produced an in-depth analysis which shows a deep understanding of economics and political philosophy. I particularly liked how his piece became part of the movement in a reporter-being-reported-on twist.

Some of Mason's arguments I don't quite agree with, and I would have liked analysis of Chile, Russia and China to be included, but overall if you, like me, have struggled to keep on top of the news agenda in an in-depth way just because of the sheer volume and would like an analysis the correlation between everything to get you back up to speed, then this book is a succinct and clear way of doing it, with a narrative thread that doesn't appear particularly biased. I particularly appreciated the references back to economic history, which didn't just return to the most obvious periods. I also liked that the voice of the protestors themselves was heard throughout and much of the content seemed to come from an on-going conversation between Mason and the leaders of some of the social movements.

It was alternately inspiring and depressing read - inspiring at what people can achieve together, and depressing, when reminded of how huge the obstacles that need to be overcome are.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere was written in a hurry - and understandably so. Paul Mason is obviously excited by the waves of unrest and uprising that kicked off in Libya and Egypt at the beginning of 2011, and I'm grateful for that, as well as for his skill as a journalist and a writer. The book is at its strongest when Mason is in the streets and in people's homes, conducting interviews and documenting all the frenzy around him; his interviewees are ordinary folks at myriad intersections of class, race, age, and geography; they animate and enrich Mason's pop-sociological account as he travels both into the heart of struggle and far off the beaten trail. I appreciate that he comes by his theorization honestly: largely through empiricism and a really critical view of history, economics and ideology. While his observations on the major players involved in the 2011 uprisings and the emergent "networked individual" are compelling, he rushes to a number of conclusions as the book comes to a close, and the solutions/suggestions that he offers as a way forward are a bit suspect - especially as the months pass further from the events he investigates. I learned a lot from this book and, while I wish Mason was an anti-capitalist (I can't figure out how he's not), I'll continue to look to him for good, critical journalism. I'm interested to see where he goes with his analysis as the uprisings and global movements that kicked off in 2011 continue to take shape.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this book took a long time for me to read, I still give it five stars because Paul Mason takes such in depth look at the possible reasons for the all current unrest and social movements that are taking place simultaneously around the world. He doesn't just look at economics (which is obviously a primary factor in the events of 2011) but at a variety of issues that forced people to the streets. Social networking, the freedom of the individual, the unsustainable system of neo-liberal capitalism: these are all just some of the themes that Mason discusses. However, I did find some of the connection that Mason tried to make a tedious at times. Mason also argues that there are similarities between what is happening now and the socio-economic battles that took place in Europe during the mid 19th century.

Where Mason shines the most, however, is when he tells the stories of people affected by gross inequalities. Whether it's the protesters in Greece, Tahrir Square or Spain or the poor of the Southwest United States or the Philippines, Mason manages to covey their stories in such a way that it hard not to empathize and sympathize with their plights. He makes their stories seem intimate in way that other journalists would have surely failed. This book is what journalism should be.

[Uwe Hook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Mason turns in a good work here. Good. But not great.

Good because he offers compelling descriptions of the events of Arab Spring 2011. As a journalist, his recount of these incidents should be good.

But this is not a great work because of his insistence on using economic theory, sometimes inaccurately, and history to explain the foundations and future direction of the worldwide protest movements of 2011. His economics "takes a walk" periodically by offering various monetary policy theories as the reasons behind the Arab Spring uprisings. Specifically he cites the American quantitative easing (QE2) policy of 2011 as a direct cause. He neglects to mention, however, that the U.S. has had other periods of quantitative easing when no such rebellions have occurred.

His use of 19th-century European revolutions as a parallel and therefore predictor of the 2011 movement outcomes is interesting, but not entirely applicable as even he himself admits in various parts of the book.

Much of the book is good, objective reporting; yet some of it comes across as dreary Marxian polemic.

The book for me, however, was interesting in the sense that it provides food for thought, and although I don't agree with Mr. Mason's outlook, his opinions do serve to stimulate intellectual curiosity.

[Terry Clague · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on holiday and I've now forgotten most of what I was going to say about it but certainly it's not up to the standard of the other two books I've read from Mason (Live Working or Die Fighting and Meltdown).

To be fair to Mason (a superb journalist currently working on the BBC's Newsnight but soon to shift over to Channel Four News), it's clearly something of a rush job, made up from blog posts and essays written whilst travelling the world covering the Arab Spring and other uprisings that for a while had us lefties dreaming of 1848 and all that.

So, it's patchy - with coverage of the political economy generally strong but then some unfortunate misty-eyed commentary on the role of social media in political uprisings (including some annoying hagiography of the likes of Clay Shirky).

[Chris Pesterfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent, if somewhat mixed, book. It feels as though he was working towards a tight deadline and didn't really have enough to say about the issue of global uprisings; the result being a couple of chapters that feel quite out of place.

That aside there's some decent analysis drawn upon, although even this feels a little like a run-through of the major theorist's found in a politics degree: so nothing new there. And at just over 200 hundred pages it is a slight read.

I'd recommend it if you wanted a quick and accessible introduction to the issues, but not if you are looking for a book with some depth. But then in Mason's defense he does point out in the introduction that it is journalism not social science.

[Duane · Rating 4 out of 5]

One could imagine Louis the 14th looking down into the town square and wondering why all those people were so darned angry. He hadn't done anything that every other monarch had done since the beginning of time. And yet, there they were. This book explores the modern examples of that, Tunisia, Egypt, Brexit, the Philippenes, and how young, educated disenfranchised people with smart phones have begun to try and make a change in the old guard and why Europe is the next to see radicalization, revolt and change. Spain has 50% youth unemployment, and they can't see a better future for themselves anytime soon....

[Steve Gillway · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real hot cross bun of a book. read it now or it'll be out of date. Mason does a great job of trying to link up all the disparate conflicts going on around the world. This book has an immediacy which is compelling because he seems to be a Kate Adie figure - if he turns up you're in deep deep trouble. He attempts to find historical parallels and he finds some political philosophy which is pertinent. His flailings around, trying to explain the here and now, show the complexity, power and interconnectivity of the interesting times we are living in.

[Lane Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mason tells some pretty compelling stories of class and/or political struggles. As an investigative journalist he manages to really get to the human level of these conflicts that take you well beyond the broader images we see on tv. What makes this book that much more interesting is how many of these stories include technology (typically some form of social media) as the mechanism to rally significant numbers around a cause and to, in some cases, outfox the authorities. A great read if you have even a passing interest in why it is indeed kicking off everywhere.

[Drew Buddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This ttpye of book would not normally be my cup of tea, but I am mentioned in the opening page of the book as Paul Mason mentions that I was present at the meeting of minds from which sprang this brilliantly written, prophetic tome. Mason writes in accessible language which makes ithe message contained therein all the more disturbing because the reader can't pretend to be befuddled by jargon. Scary, but essential reading in today's financial climate.

[Marilyn Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book helps you understand young people's support of Bernie Sanders, the plight of our current troubles in government, how capitalism gets rid of the middle class and how social media plays a part in all of these situations. While the author offers hope at the end of the book and I hope the world can change, I see too many greedy individuals unwilling to help. Please do not vote for Trump.

[Richard Paul]

An interesting read although I think he gives too much credit to the new technologies and not enough to old fashioned class struggle. The basic premise that the new movements have been provoked initially by "graduates without a future" is sound and explains some of the character of the current social movements.

[Charles Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good summary and engagement with the new wave of global protest and revolution. A little too uncritical of the dost runs of digital activism and a somewhat binary interpretation of the relationship between the new forms of organisation and the old but a useful spur towards the rethinking of orthodoxies. Very good indeed.

[Maciej Bojda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okrutny kapitalizm.
Prawica to naziści.
Wspaniałe media społecznościowe.
Twitter, BlackBerry i SMS-y ratują świat.
Nie warto czytać, bo jest Twitter.

Wszystko to jakby pisane na kolanie, bardzo subiektywne, jednostronne. Chwilowy zachwyt nad ówczesną teraźniejszością bez spojrzenia w przyszłość i propozycji działań jutra.

[Christoph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant account of the uprisings of 2011 from Iran to OWS. Sometimes a bit optimistic about the use and relevance of social media and possibly a bit drastic in the lookout to the future. I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to understand contemporary struggles.

[John Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scary stuff. A nice blend of the reporter and the intellectual. I assume this is a book that keeps getting rewritten, online.

[Mike Thestudent]

Awesome! An amazeing, inspirational journalist!

[Aj · Rating 4 out of 5]

behind the headlines book well worth a read.

[... · Rating 1 out of 5]

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