> What strikes me is how little was gained by both sides in this, and how futile their actions seem in hindsight. To quote Chuck Palahniuk: "On a long enough t

> What strikes me is how little was gained by both sides in this, and how futile their actions seem in hindsight. To quote Chuck Palahniuk: "On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero." If you give history enough time, it will always look like little has been gained in terms of eradicating oppression. Sure, some forms of oppression don't exist anymore, but society evolves other forms as a replacement. I don't honestly believe we'll ever "figure out how to use the political process [...] to stop our government agencies from doing things that we don't like." I think history is like a power game where rules keep changing over time because one side keeps finding ways to rig the game. Sooner or later, there's enough evidence that the game is rigged and the other side realizes that it's futile to keep playing by the same rules and finds a new way to fight back.