Man and Superman: Will There Be Revolution?

In order to give focus to some major changes she sees on the horizon, Sramana Mitra has written several pieces that grew out of her original article, Man and Superman: Human History Bifurcates. The previous articles in this series: Two Distinct Species; What CAN Be Controlled?; Rationalizing Populations; How Long Does Democracy Survive?; The Environmental Time Bomb; Role of Religion. Please share your thoughts and help get the conversation going.

I’ve had several conversations about this series at various dinner parties, and a few points that have come up are worth further discussion.

One of them is the rebuttal that if Superman stops supporting Man through extensive welfare, there will be revolution.

I agree. This is a very logical possibility.

So let’s do a thought experiment on what leads up to revolution and what happens in the event of revolution.

Already, the idea of Universal Basic Income is gaining momentum in various parts of the world. Experiments are under way. Policy is likely to follow.

But, as we’ve discussed before, UBI is extremely expensive to provide for 10 billion people. That means taxation is going to go up on a dramatic scale in most countries. And governments will need to make a concerted effort to get their hands on very large portions of the wealth generated by Superman.

What does Superman do in response?

Most likely, certain countries would offer them shelter. Tax shelter. Physical shelter. Sophisticated lifestyles. Special treatment. New Zealand. Ireland. Malta. Superman will have options. Superman may move out of countries that try to take their wealth and redistribute beyond a certain threshold.

My friend Prad, when I said this, countered by saying, “The masses will come after them! There will be war.”

May be.

The masses, with little resources at their disposal, will cross oceans and attack Superman. Unlikely, I think. But let’s say they do.

Now we have war.

Who would win this war?

Well, in the French Revolution, Louis VI and Marie Antoinette ended up with their heads chopped off on the guillotine. The masses won that war.

Does that mean the masses win ALL revolutionary wars?

Why did the masses prevail over the French royalty? Because, they needed human armies to defend themselves. And, the armies turned against them.

Today, armies are no longer made up of humans. Wars are increasingly fought and won by drones and robots operated by highly trained humans. Superman.

What chance does a revolution of Man have against the machine-might of Superman?

Photo credit:Ted Eytan/Flickr.com.

This segment is a part in the series : Man and Superman