Does The Revolution Have To Be Revolutionary?
By: Ben Walker
Tags: Activism, Politics, Society, Democracy, Revolution

Does The Revolution Have To Be Revolutionary?

Change in a moment, or change with momentum?

Can the revolution really happen?

I fantasise about it all the time. That moment when the social pot finally boils over, our anger becomes action and overlords become over.

That moment when chaos bursts forth and everything is up for grabs. A window of time in which we have the opportunity to reshape society for people and planet. To dismantle inequality and ineptitude. To build a new structure that promotes the pursuit of better values.

But how can that moment arise? How are the revolutionary flames stoked?

Potential social sparks happen all the time. We only have to look to widely reported protests in every Western city to see that. Whether it’s racial injustice, environmental exploitation, or hate-riddled politics. These events are potentially incendiary, but always smolder. Then they fizzle out.

For these sparks to ignite revolution, the tinder must be dry enough. The socio-political environment must be under such pressure, pushed so close to the edge, that the spark ignites it all.

But if the tinder never takes, then what can we hope for? The only alternative is the gradual warming of sentiments. Of tweaking the system from within. Because we love the system. It gives just enough of us just enough to stay hooked. The activity of our system is directed towards, like any organism, the system’s own interests. It’s self-protecting.

We work for the system, but it does not work for us. It works for itself.

We, the people, are dumb. Drip-fed dopamine through entertainment, consumerism and creature comforts. Those that shed their ignorance never shed it fully, and become divided by the remains of their differing ignorances. Most of us want a better world, but the variety of narratives we subscribe to ensure we never agree on how to achieve that better world, or what it even looks like.

And it’s not like the rich, the bourgeoisie, have intentionally engineered it to be this way. Nobody ever sat down and drew up their master plan for the domination of neoliberal capitalism.

It just happened.

The system evolved out of the realities of our world and the result is simply a configuration that is good at perpetuating itself. We accidented our way into this auto-reproducing feedback loop.

HOW CAN WE BREAK THIS.

How can we possibly take the reins from within the system itself. Within the human organism, it would be like the liver deciding that, actually, that greedy brain doesn’t deserve it’s position. Liver’s gonna call the shots now, and spread the love around all the organs.

But the liver can never make that decision. The brain makes decisions for this system. And the brain won’t ever make a decision against it’s own interests. It’s self-preservation 101.

As unsavoury as it is to liken the ultra-rich and capitalist elements of society to the centre of our consciousness, the comparison is uncomfortably accurate. Those elements direct the activity of the entire system.

We — the people, the liver and the rest of the organs that make things work — are at the cognitive mercy of those decision-makers. We have to occupy our place in the system, or we don’t get the things we need to survive. We’re essentially automatic. We are directionless. We just do the work.

And that has to continue, regardless of whether the brain makes terrible decisions. The liver has to deal with the unending heaps of shit the brain decides to shovel into the system. When the health of the entire organism is degraded because of the poor direction the brain took us in, we just have to accept it. Our existence suffers, because the system does not work for us.

This is our fate.

Revolution is the way

Perhaps revolution is the only way to break the cycle.

A momentous, violent revolution would be analogous to an external pressure on the organism. A challenge so great that the only systems that survive are those that adapt. A shock that forces the system to evolve. That knocks the reins out of the hands of the elite.

Of course, there’s danger. Who will pick up those reins again? Will it be those that have the people at heart? Perhaps it will be those that are simply the strongest and most persuasive. Maybe, at the right time, those two groups are one and the same.

Is that when revolutions are destined to succeed? When the new leaders have such support from the populace, such genuine democracy at heart, that they are able to swiftly step up to the plate. The new instruments of power are both instruments of the people and powerful enough to take the reins in the first place.

This may be why we haven’t revolted. Do enough of us have the confidence that the alternative is better? We’re so divided that for every person that welcomes the chaos, there’s another that fears the unknown. We can no longer see that, ultimately, we share an enemy. And we share goals.

Until the veil of ignorance and contempt for each other lifts, if it ever does, we may never spark that fire.

We may never ignite the revolution.

Is this our fate?