The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.
G. K. Chesterton
Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.
Abbie Hoffman
“A revolution is interesting insofar as it avoids like the plague the plague it promised to heal
Daniel Berrigan
There has been a lot of serious minded discussion lately here and no doubt in other blogs and casual conversation about whether we have gone to far and lost far too much. There are always going to be two “R” words among leftist/progressive/ crusty independent thinkers. Do we push for reform or revolution? Can we fix our broken democracy with good ideas, the right people, and the support of a wary populace or do we need to break the system and make up a new one?
I don’t know which camp I fall into. It isn’t a matter of indecisiveness or faith or belief. I can tell the revolutionary types that I don’t “do” committees and that I think it is the height of middle class elitism to presume to tell the working classes to follow my lead or trust that my education confers a special knowledge about what “we” need. I can tell the reform types that the most interesting ideas are generally diluted by the ruling classes and molded to maintain their position in the super structure of power.
Nor am I trying to present the face of caution against any turbulent changes. Often however, the very people who call for or long for revolution make the assumption that they in fact will be an integral part or even have a leadership role when the dawning of the new day pops up. But often when new rules emerge the people we assumed were natural leaders turn out to be unsuitable and those we never considered noteworthy peel off a new layer of identity and surprise us. Nor can we control things that are unleashed or predict where the wave will lead. Nor should we underestimate the depth of reactionary forces, insurgency and counter insurgencies can blur the moral lines make the gray zones more vast. Show trials make great TV but crappy justice.
I hope I am there if change melts the cages, opens minds, and births the sort of creative forces necessary to create hope but I am not assuming what my role will be or if I even deserve or merit one and neither should any among us. I only hope some of the people I admire will be recognized as those who can make a contribution.
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I have to keep myself in ek’s good graces by trying to FP myself routinely. Might get a stern “talking to” otherwise. I think he does a good stern imitation.
Anyway this is just a continuation of dialog that has been going on recently about where we are headed and whether there will be chocolate when we get there.
and nobody came?
I LOVE the Hoffman quote. Kinda reminds me of part of Buhdy’s mission statement for this place.
And when you talked about the unintended consequences of a revolution, I thought about Iran. I’m not an expert on what happened there, but from what I read, revolutionary chaos led to the emergence of a pretty repressive regime.
This has all seemed to hit quite the vein. I hope it’s not one of those weird-ass foreshadowings which sweep through from time to time.
…whose avowed purpose in life is to be someone’s arm candy. Or to have their own arm candy. It will be hard to get such people to be either revolutionaries or reformers.
My take, we need to reinvigorate the original dream of the people who stood up to the most powerful monarch on the planet. We need to get back as far as the basic rights laid out in the Magna Carta.
There has been tremendous progress made in the two hundred and thirty-two years since independence was declared. There’s no point in throwing the baby out with the bath water.
The problem we have today is an overly powerful executive branch, a craven legislative branch, a tenuously stacked judicial branch and a fourth estate that is just plain missing-in-action. We have decent rules, regulations and principles that if followed would have prevented much of the destruction around us.
We have become our own fourth estate so we have a way to solve that part of the problem. To me, an essential step is internalizing your own vision of the underlying fundamentals of what this thing we call America means. To me, it isn’t left/right, red/blue, conservative/liberal, Democrat/Republican. To me, it’s binary – you’re either free or you’re not. Right now,we still have an illusion of freedom but that illusion is fading fast.
I feel that if we can find and effectively disseminate the fundamental truth of what has been and is being done to our basic rights then we will succeed. It’s going to take laser focus on the truth. I know in my bones that their greatest fear is the truth seeing the light of day.
We’re totally on our own here. Expect no help from anyone but us. A clear vision and a laser focus on the Truth will put us firmly on the path. It’s in God’s hands from there.
“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32
“Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time … ” Mohandas K. Ghandi
Satya.
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one of those “people watcher” types not a center stage type so I have no egotistical stake in the outcome. I would accept a cabinet post on the revolutionary committee
something along the lines of “Department of Slackers” or “Keeper of the Wine Cellar”.
If it was up to me we would have a revolution everyday. And then revolt against that.
I really, underneath it all, just want people to wake the fuck up and look around and truly CHOOSE the life they lead.
Fortunately, it is not up to me! So I just rebel against myself instead. David nailed it good yesterday, it is the inner revolution that really matters, otherwise we are just reinventing the wheel to take turns running over each other.
But when revolution is in the air, I will encourage it as much as possible. Change is very very much needed right now. If talk of revolution spurs some form of change I am all for it. Unintended consequences be damned, if we don’t change we die. We need to get started.
While we can still have a rational discussion about it all.
Of course I am against anything more than symbolic violence
(I have had to revise my position slightly, since I do think it is a good idea to pillory George and Dick and have small children hurl non fresh produce at them)