What Is Concrete Power?

Mature societies can continue stumbling along indefinitely under sheer momentum but are usually upended by some sort of catastrophe. John Michael Grier says almost all modern revolutions have happened in countries where the elite has turned over the bulk of the actual work and burden to the working class while making it harder to reach their levels of comfort. And once the mechanisms of power are in flux, that can mean that the elite have no one to command, no one who will listen and their left powerless.