I fear that we are talking past each other and have different readings of the same words; and vastly different conceptual backgrounds. Map political science on

I fear that we are talking past each other and have different readings of the same words; and vastly different conceptual backgrounds. Map political science onto the sandpile model [1] to get a first order approximation of the framework of analysis I'm using from a macro perspective. On the micro level of individual perception; what matters isn't merely the perceived lawlessness of the elites and of the guardian castes, but the growing sense that "If you play by the rules; you're a sucker." And depending on your level of investment in the current order that sense can be a powerful motivator to working around limits that were introduced to promote institutional stability. And if most peoples reality is that the ruleset they're working off of is largely economically workable only because it's technically illegal... that's inherently unstable. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abelian_sandpile_model