If you study history - recent Iraqi history for example - bitterness - and extreme bitterness leading to violence - stems primarily from poor living conditions. Iraq has no power most of the time; no reliable law enforcement; and very little gainful employment. The result is bitterness, civil war between competing ethnic and religious groups, violent militias, etc.

The inner cities of many parts of the United States are already like this. Gangs and drug dealers are analogous to militias. It's now spreading to the suburbs and rural areas as a direct result of the war against the middle class - and if you don't get that it's a war, you're most certainly an elitist. This war, based on outsourcing, union busting and corporate deregulation, began in earnest under Reagan, only slowed down somewhat under Clinton and lurched into turbo-drive under Bush II.

If you don't get this, you are an elitist. Splash some cold water on your faces and snap out of it. When your own life is good enough that you can engage in philosophy and creature comforts, but you don't understand the extent to which others are suffering, you are an elitist. Marie Antoinette was the classic elitist. When told that the people had no bread, she said "let them eat cake."