Obviously this isn't just America, but pretty much the history of humanity.

What would be useful would be some actual discussion of the dynamics and mechanisms at work, driving these processes.

Michael Hudson recently wrote an interesting book on the history of finance, "… and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure, and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year," which goes into the dynamic of predatory lending, that arose with the introduction of money as a medium of exchange. One of the points, highlighted by the title, was that Jesus' original message was, "Forgive them their debts," as the habit of debt jubilees had been neglected for some centuries and the divide between rich and poor had grown quite wide.

Though the religion was co-opted by Imperial Rome and it became "Forgive them their sins," as a way to guilt trip people back into control.

The fact is that money functions as a contract, with the asset backed by an obligation, presumably between the community and the individual, though the process of lending it around creates a centripetal effect, as positive feedback draws the asset to the center of the community, while negative feedback pushes the debt to the edges.

Since money and finance function as the value circulation mechanism of society, analogous to blood and the arteries of the body, the effect is like the heart telling the hands and feet they don't need so much blood and should work harder for what they do get.

Over the ages the powers that be have developed ever more effective and pervasive means of controlling the larger population.

For example, Bob Dylan did some interesting studies, originating from his background in the folk music industry, of the ways which racism was actively promoted after the Civil War, as a way to keep poor whites and blacks from identifying along economic and class lines. As it is called, "Divide and conquer."

Could it be that some of the fuel being poured on these summer riots has similar, underlaying intentions? We will see as the fall comes, as to the broader effect and blowback.