The man in the iconic photo here should be a reminder of the fact that those who rule only do so because the masses let them.It rarely occurrs to most of us, but the only thing that makes a rich man rich and a poor man poor is a social contract. Through more elaborate manipulations of social contracts, the rich man may persuade other men to align their beliefs with his, which gives the illusion of power, but this is simply another social contract. Which is why it astounds me that in difficult economic times, when many people are in fear daily that they may not be able to keep their homes or feed their children, or indeed are homeless or hungry, that other people continue to live in luxury. This is perhaps most appalling when those “other people” are the people we’ve elected to manage our civil and economic affairs, and they happen to be failing miserably at their jobs. What keeps this decomposing social fabric together? Our complacency and acceptance, I guess. This might be a good time to remember the bravery and fortitude of those who were involved the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 which lasted several months and were finally put to an end by the Chinese military in early June 20 years ago. When was the last time we saw this kind of self-respect and action amongst the populace of the United States? Probably not since 1776 or so. Boston.com has some great photos looking back at Tiananmen, 20 years later.