explicitly. If it doesn't, we'll be blindsided by the double movement again, as the social fabric eventually demands (and gets) protection from the ravages of the markets. -- -- -- -- *I'm always reminded of my visit to Russia a few years ago. My host, a grandmother who was renting out the couch in her living room to students, had been a teacher her whole life, most of it clearly under Communism. She spoke warmly of her life experiences, and of Stalin who made so much of it possible -- as did many other formerly middle-class Russians I encountered. This seems to be a similar comparison (with the main difference being that this describes a hierarchically domestic lifestyle shift, where the latter an anarchic international relations shift) to what Robert Kagan talks about in "The return of history, and the end of dreams". Ultimately, it seems to boil down to the fact that our hard earned comforts have rendered many lackadaisical, and perhaps overly optimistic about humanity's propensity to advance itself. And history seems to be delivering a proverbial slap in the crotch to serve as a reminder. 1) Oregon's voters' enacting tax increases on individuals (+2% on incomes over $125k) and businesses (sales tax, disguised as an income tax -- yes, taxes regardless of earnings or losses), 2) California's current crisis ($20B deficit only a few months after "balancing" the budget, due to Calpers' steady growth in entitlements), 3) Increasingly partisan politics pitting unions (mostly governmental) against business and