The story is that the Reformation was the result of a GRASSROOTS rebellion. This grassroots rebellion was the direct result of the printing press.

There is a distinction here. It is the sort of distinction I made a good living explaining. It is the lesson I offer you free. But you have been reading Bob’s stuff so long you probably consider it obvious. Everything I say is obvious, in retrospect. But the people who paid me knew it in PROSPECT, and they won.

OK, I hope to you it is obvious: The revolt of those who could READ that was the Reformation was anything BUT grassroots. They did read to the illiterate masses, but the basis of the revolt was a new class, middle class which could READ.

Anyone who makes his living in television knows that it is critical to reach the right demographic. Peasants in the days of Luther were largely still pagan. They went to church the way Japanese peasants have icons of Buddha, Christ, and Shinto deities. The Lutheran/Calvin revolt was not grassroots, it was a rebellion on the part of the new ruling demographic.

The reason people paid me money was for observations so obvious that, when they become generally accepted, you wonder why the HELL someone would pay MONEY to a person who claims it was some kind of Special Wisdom.

But if you are fanatic like me, you couldn’t care less. It worked. Now to the next problem.

It should be obvious, and isn’t, that a Cyberroots rebellion is different from a grassroots rebellion. After a few thousand of us marched for Confederate flag over the South Carolina capitol building, there was really massive march AGAINST it. Tens of thousands of blacks packed the street to the extent of the Million Man March in DC, to the point where they were jammed so tightly they had trouble breathing. They won, because it was supposed to be a GRASSROOTS revolt.

They were led by the clerics in backwards collars and with Bob Jones’s timely support, but it was solid black.

So I asked, “What percentage of the anti-flag masses were SWING votes?” In our few thousand, some hated Beasley and some might still vote Republican. But every single person in those hundred thousand ant-flaggers was a committed liberal.

When it comes to politics, the grassroots are meaningless.

Let’s do some real political arithmetic:

Bob Joes IV or XIV or whoever he is will sell out to the highest bidders. All of his slaves will vote Republican. He has family business to run. The blacks and the guys with the backward collars will vote liberal Democrat. So if I were getting paid to advise on POLITICS, I’d say you better forget the apparent grassroots and pay attention to the people who have OPINIONS.

So what is the demographic that sane people are looking for?

MTV’s desperate attempt to get its watchers, tens of millions of them, out to vote is one of the best-known failures in popular history.

Those poor bastards! I’ve BEEN there! MTV is run by overaged hippies. They were Young Radicals in the NINETEEN SIXTIES for God’s sake! Has anybody taken a look at a CALENDAR lately? But they figured “I am a young radical in the year 2000 and when I say ‘young radical’ in 2000 AD all these young folks will sign on and get out there and vote anti-racist.”

You never heard abut it when a Soviet space shot failed, complete with lots of dead people. You never hear about it when a Radical Initiative goes pfsst. The MTV campaign went pffst.

A Cyber Revolt is entirely different from the Workers’ Class crap Jane Fonda dreams about.

I used to get paid for observations like this. Maybe it’s worth your thinking abut.