Crime in the Advanced Industrial Countries.

[shadowed by the secret police]

Are bank robberies, occupied burglaries of rich people's homes, sticking up of liquor stores and the like a sign of a major revolution in the womb of the old society pregnant with a new one?

Remember what Bakunin said," The brigand is the only, the true revolutionary."

[bcbm]

Industrial society or, more specifically, urban conditions and the resultant poverty, have always bred crime. This was as true in the 13th century as it is in the 21st. I don't think it is a sign of revolution in our society, yet, but many revolutions certainly grow out of criminal acts.

[Tatarin]

There can not be any revolution if the people in it do not know what they are doing. A bank robber has money in mind, not a mission to help the revolution. Some robbers become rich themselves.

A revolution can only be created by conscious action - i.e. there must be a point of robbing this bank, or demonstrating this day, or violent action against the police/military/government/corporation etc.

[loveme4whoiam]

A revolution can only be created by conscious action - i.e. there must be a point of robbing this bank, or demonstrating this day, or violent action against the police/military/government/corporation etc.
An excellent summation Tatarin :) The fact that most crimes of this nature (robberies etc) are committed, to a greater or lesser extent depending on each individual case, due to the criminals living in situations that should drive them to see revolutionary action as the only way to go, does not mean that they are committing the act for anything other than a twisted sense of self-preservation.

[Janus]

It's definitely a sign of unrest but not of political revolutionary unrest. However, it is a sign of the increasing wealth disparity and deteriorating conditions in the US that may potentially lead to greater things but crime itself is not indicative of a revolutionary situation.