which led it to attempt to make revolutionary changes within the system, which was called perestroika (i.e.,
restructuring), which failed and was followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union’s order in 1991 and that order
being replaced by the new system/order that is now governing Russia, which, after the collapse of the old order,
was built in the classic ways described later in this chapter in my explanation of Stages 1 and 2. In that case, the
communist domestic order and its big cycle lasted 74 years (from 1917 until 1991). Another is the Meiji
Restoration, which came about as a result of a three-year revolution (1866-69) in Japan that came about because
the Japanese were closed off to the outside world and failed to advance so the Americans forced the Japanese to
open, which prompted a revolutionary group to fight and defeat the rulers (led by the military shogun) in battle,
which led to overturning the internal order run by four classes—1) the conservative military, 2) farmers, 3)
artisans, and 4) merchants—that had ruled Japan. The old Japanese order run by traditional people was ultra-
conservative—e.g., social mobility was outlawed—and was replaced by revolutionaries who were extremely
progressive and changed everything under the emperor to make great improvements. Early in this period there
were lots of labor disputes, strikes, and riots that resulted from the classic wealth gaps and bad economic condition
triggers. In the reform process the leadership provided universal elementary education for both boys and girls,
adopted capitalism, and opened up the country to the outside world. Rather than using the old technologies they
were able to use the new technologies, which led them to become very competitive and gain wealth. There are
many such cases of countries that did the right things to produce revolutionarily beneficial improvements, just as
there are many cases of revolutionaries doing the wrong things that inflicted terrible pain on their people for
decades. By the way, as a result of its reformations Japan went on to move through the classic stages of the Big
Cycle to become extremely successful and rich, but over time it became decadent, overextended, and fragmented;
had an economic depression; had expensive wars; and that led to a classic demise. Its “Meiji order” and its classic
Big Cycle lasted for 76 years from 1869 to 1945.
Civil wars and revolutions inevitably take place to radically change the internal order (i.e., the system of
distributing wealth and power). They include total restructurings of wealth and political power that include
complete restructurings of debt and financial ownership and political decision making. These changes are the
natural consequence of needing to make big changes that can’t be made within the existing system. Almost all
systems encounter them. That is because almost all systems benefit some classes of people at the expense of
other classes, which eventually becomes intolerable to the point that there is a fight to determine the path
forward. When the gaps in wealth and values become very wide and economically bad conditions ensue so that
the system is not working for a large percentage of the people, the people will fight to change the system. Those
who are economically suffering the most will fight to get more wealth and power against those who have wealth
and power and who benefit from the existing system. Naturally the revolutionaries want to radically change the
system, so naturally they are willing to break the laws that those in power demand that they adhere to. These
revolutionary changes typically happen violently through civil wars, though as previously described, they can
come about peacefully without toppling the system.
The periods of civil war are typically very brutal. Typically early in them these wars are forceful and orderly
struggles for power, and as the fighting and emotions intensify and the sides do anything to win, the levels of
brutality accelerate unexpectedly so the actual levels of brutality that occur in the Stage 6 civil wars and
revolutions will have been considered implausible in Stage 5. Reading the stories of the civil wars and revolutions
that I studied, such as the Spanish Civil War, the Chinese Civil War, the Russian Revolution, and the French
Revolution, made my hair curl. The elites and moderates flee, are imprisoned, or are killed.
How do they transpire? Earlier I described the dynamics of Stage 5 that led to crossing the line to Stage 6. During
this stage all of those intensify greatly. I will explain.
How Civil Wars and Revolutions Transpire
As previously described, the cycle of building wealth and wealth gaps that leads to a very small percentage of the
population controlling an exceptionally large percentage of the wealth eventually results in the poor majority
overthrowing the rich minority via civil wars and revolutions. This has happened more times than one can imagine.
While most of the archetypical civil wars and revolutions shifted power from the right to the left, many
shifted wealth and power to the right and away from those on the left. However, there were fewer of them and
they were different. They typically happened when the existing orders slipped into dysfunctional anarchies and a