Conclusion

While a government may claim to act for the good of the people, power will always corrupt and the rulers will cease listening to and caring for the ruled and instead care for itself. It is the responsibility of the people to rebel against the government when it ceases being good and righteous, but violence as a meme will not improve the lives of the people or cause the government to act more fairly-instead, it will breed hate and fear, tools an oppressive regime can easily use to its advantage. In addition, as technology becomes more and more advanced, it becomes more and more difficult for an armed uprising of the poor to affect change; a majority armed with pitchforks would find it much more difficult to face a line of machine guns and advanced security systems today than they would have found facing armed guards or cavaliers with swords hundreds of years ago. The only remaining options are to remain meek and silent, paying whatever the government asks, or to defeat the system; causing economic malaise by filling the jails or stretching the police forces thin, or refusing to aid the system (either by gifts of money or of work) until the governing body, in order to merely keep functioning, falls to it’s knees and grants the people their demands.