In the wake of financial collapse and rising global unrest, the air in early 2009 feels eerily familiar. Revolutions once sparked by pamphlets now spread through broadband, but the tension is the same: governments overreaching, economies unraveling, and citizens rediscovering how quickly “stability” becomes illusion. As the Obama era begins, the question isn’t whether history repeats—it’s whether we’ve learned anything since 1848, when idealism and upheaval shared the same barricades.
Originally published at Big Think on March 5, 2009