A Completion of the Social Revolution?

Before I start this post - I must give a shout out unless you missed it. Alison is pregnant. Read more about it on the previous post. Also, check out the app to the right. --> This shows the development of Round 2, as we call him. Quite cute, isn't he! Anyway, on to the subject of this post.

I just read a biography about Vladimir Putin, the current prime minister of Russia and former president. Even though he is only prime minister, which is a lower post in the executive, it is his protege, Dmirtry Medvedev, who has taken the role of president. However, many people believe that Putin still ultimately calls the shots. In the biography, I learned how Putin was born to a lower middle class family, went through soviet indoctrination and decided to work for the KGB as a result, and eventually worked himself into russian politics. It was, it seems, an accident of history that he was catapulted into the presidency at the end of Boris Yeltsin's 8 year self implosion.

So Putin rose from being a relative unknown in his country to being the leader of one of the most powerful countries in teh world. Russia isn't an economic powerhouse at the moment, but certainly their arsenal of nuclear weapons makes them relevant. And Russia does what it wants. You got to admit, its no small accomplishment on Putin's part.

This got me thinking. There are three other countries who are or will soon rise to be THE world powers of the most consequence:

• United States: the worlds only hyperpower after the fall of the Soviet Union. After enjoying the hegemony, we are having to deal with a multipolar world.
  
• China: Regaining world power status after a century or two hiccup of not being a world power. And, basically they own US debt.
  
• India: they have 1 billion people and, really, they do most of the work for the US anyways. It won't be long before they are getting the majority of profit from their own work.
  

In each of these countries, the leader has rose from relative obscurity to be the leader of a very powerful nation. Barack Obama is the most recent member of this club. However, Hu Jintao - the president of China - came from a nondescript family. Manmohan Singh, the current prime minister and head of governemnt also came from a poor family and shares Hu's characteristic of not being raised by either of his parents. Singh isn't even a Hindu. He's sikh, which is a major deal in itself (imagine a jewish man becoming president of the US).

In fact, regarding parents, I believe the same is somewhat true for Obama. While his mother did not die until he was an adult and married, she moved around a lot and he lived with his grandmother for a portion of his life.

None of these men are from the "establishment", so to speak. They are not from the Bush Dynasty or from the Kennedy clan. Putin does not have connections to the powerful families of Russia, and Hu is not from the ancient families of China. Particularly in the case of Putin and Obama, the normal people clamor over them, and the "establishment" is eager to line up behind them to gain their own brownie points (or in Russia's case - cower in fear as he crushes them with greater fury than Alison v Ants in our kitchen).

Have we reached a revolution of class when it is those who were once poor, and are now rich, who run the four most powerful or soon to be powerful countries in the world? Have we usurped the borgouisie and have the proletariate taken over?

Somehow I thought it would have been different...