angel_jane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angel_jane) wrote2010-10-18 01:57 am
angel_jane) wrote2010-10-18 01:57 am
Entry tags:
Deep thoughts.
I am guessing I am just a little bit sensitive to certain words. I read a wonderful and eloquent LiveJournal entry by a friend of mine, that detailed her teen years. I won't go into details here, her story, is not my own. But walking down the street on Saturday I was strongly reminded of the entry.
I was in Sutton, the town I currently live in meeting up with my best friend (whom I think of as a little sister – there is a year between us, so for all intents and purposes entirely possible IMHO) and her dad. We had had a lovely afternoon of tea and conversation, and were walking down the main street of the town and there were a group of youths. Not one of them were over 24, they were there for some reason – but those reasons were rather obscure – I still don't know why they were there.
As I am walking down the street, 3 year old godson at my side, I hear a youngster (I am only 29) start talking about how the youth of today are only looking for a hand out. Then I hear him utter the worst thing imaginable; “We need a revolution” I don't know if it would have had such an emotively powerful, sucker punch reaction had I not read my friends entry, but my blood ran so cold, it was ice fire that fuelled its way through my veins. The fellow speaking couldn't have been older than 18.
Revolution (n) An overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. It is a cold definition, it lacks what is going on, the sociology dictionary puts it a little better ; a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.
What people often seem to miss is a revolution is long time coming and a long time lasting. And what is really going on is only ever seen by the outside world is cold statistics and often smuggled film footage. Cold and remote. On the ground, as has been seen so often through history, the common person is the one to pay the highest price.
An initial revolution can be a few months or a few years. For example the French revolution, if you look at just within France's boarders there is around 250,000 lost in … NINE MONTHS. In total including the revolutionary wars 1.4 million men were killed (Sorokin, P., The Sociology of Revolution, 1967) The point is, whilst a fair enough amount of these were soldiers – who to a greater or lesser extent we expect to lose in battle. I doubt they ever expected that their own people, their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers or children would be the ones killing them.
As if that isn't enough lets look at the English Civil war, here too it fits the criteria for a revolution. The common people uprising against the powerful, changing as they go the system at play from an autocratic, royalist control, to a democratic power (1642 -47) it is calculated that for a country of 4 million souls – 100-000 died of either fighting or disease attributable to being at war. Not to mention we used the law that King Charles I brought back (impeachment), something his father told him not to do, because it could be used against him, against him – he lost his head in 1647.
America, herself, has not been brought with out blood-shed the American revolutionary war also known as the War of Independence cost around 50,000 men their lives. Though exact figures are not available so this figure may be a lot higher. This war saw governorship of the Colony of America becoming American owned instead of being a part of Great Britain. The American Civil war, between the confederacy and the Union of States cost 620,000 lives of soldiers and an un-calculated loss of civilian life. It resulted in Northern rule over the southern states effectively unifying the country, ending slavery in the southern states and the reconstruction of the 11 seceding states would effect self governorship.
Finally I present a more recent Revolution; The Russian Revolution. (This is by no means an exhaustive list and I will give examples of others that have occurred in the past 20 years) The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not a singular revolution but a series of them, all in the same year, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy. In the February and October of the year the Provsional Government disposed – literally – of the aristocracy and any of their supporters, The Provisional Government was deposed in the October Revolution which led to a Russian civil war lasting until 1922 between the reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (Anti-Bolsheviks). Between 1917 and 1922 9.5 million deaths are thought to have occurred through battle and disease. This led inevitably to Stalin led Russia, and a cold war between East and West.
So to look at it, between these four revolutions we have accounted for 11,620,000 deaths, just changing regime's from autocratic to either democratic or communist. And the effects are not just immediate – most regime's develop a severe sense of paranoia – the English Civil war led to the Pilgrim fathers leaving from Portsmouth to America because they had supported republican concerns, when Charles II was restored during the restoration. The Russians were even more paranoid – 4.5 million were lost through democides – not to mention those that were vanished to Siberia.
So we come back to the 18 year old speaking on the corner of my town, microphone in hand and the vigour of youth in his veins. What does he know of revolution other than that of fast change? What would he think if he knew what the figures were, if we could somehow translate that into something meaningful to him. I agree with him in only one aspect. Yes things do need to change. But revolution has rarely been a good way to carry out that change.
Revolution has often been about the powerless gaining power, through violent means. Maintaining that power often means quelling uprisings from the deposed and placing them into the position of the powerless. And so a self-perpetuating mess begins to show itself. It is always the case that the average person is the one on the raw end. The ones that have to bear the brunt of the financing of a war, it is also them that face the fear and the death, the disruption and persecution.
So how should we exact some form of change? A fast solution seems great, but isn't after all. So perhaps pragmatism is a solution. Working within the system that you wish to change. And perhaps it is more of a generational change. A movement should not be disheartened by a seeming lack of progress on a large scale, each small change exacted is a victory in and of itself. Perhaps the ethos for those wishing to change the world should be work from within, compromise in idealism, cling to your conscience.
As for my friend who inspired some deep thoughts of their own, and of whom I was so reminded by this child's mis-thought words? A phrase comes to mind. The truest of hearts are tried by the hardest of times.
(For those interested in Revolutions in the past 20 years, some of which are ongoing, the list – taken from Wikipedia – follows.)
1990–present: United Liberation Front of Asom launch major violent activities against Indian rule in Assam.To date, the resulting clashes with the Indian army have left more than 10,000 dead.[16]
1990-1992: Anticommunist forces led a National Democratic Revolution dhe overthrew President Ramiz Alia and ended with the win of elections byDemocratic Party of Albania the biggest anticommunist party in Albania.
1990–1995: The Log Revolution in Croatia starts, triggering the Croatian War of Independence.
1990–1995: The First Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali.
1991: The Kurdish uprising against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Iraqi Kurdistan.
1991: The Shiite Uprising in Karbala, Iraq.
1991: The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front take control of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, after dictator Haile Mariam Mengistuflees the country, bringing an end to the Ethiopian Civil War
1992–1995: Bosnian War of Independence.
1992: An Afghan uprising against the Taliban by United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, or the Northern Alliance.
1994: The 1990s Uprising in Bahrain, Shiite-led rebellion for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain.
1994: The Zapatista Rebellion: an uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas demanding equal rights for indigenous peoples and in opposition to growing neoliberalism in North America.
1994–1996: The First Chechen Rebellion against Russia.
1996: An Islamic movement in Afghanistan led by the Taliban established Taliban rule.
1997: The 1997 rebellion in Albania sparked by Ponzi scheme failures.
1997–1999: The Kosovo Rebellion against Yugoslavia.
1998: The election in Venezuela of socialist leader Hugo Chávez is called the Bolivarian Revolution.
1998: The Indonesian Revolution of 1998 resulted the resignation of President Suharto after three decades of the New Order period.
1999–present: The Second Chechen Rebellion against Russia.
1999: The Iran student protests, July 1999 were, at the time, the most violent protests to occur against the islamic regime of Iran.
[edit]2000–present
2000–present: The Second Intifada a continuation of the First Intifada. The wave of violence that began in September 2000 between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis.
2000: The bloodless Bulldozer Revolution, first of the four colour revolutions, overthrows Slobodan Milošević's régime in Yugoslavia.
2001: The 2001 Macedonia conflict.
2001–present: The Taliban insurgency following the 2001 war in Afghanistan which overthrow Taliban rule.
2001: The 2001 EDSA Revolution peacefully ousts Philippine President Joseph Estrada after the collapse of his impeachment trial.
2001: Supporters of Philippines former president Joseph Estrada violently and unsuccessfully stage a rally, so-called the EDSA Tres, in an attempt of returning him to power.
2003: The Rose Revolution, second of the colour revolutions, displaces the president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, and calls new elections.
2003–present: The Iraqi insurgency refers to the armed resistance by diverse groups within Iraq to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and to the establishment of a liberal democracy therein.
2003–present: The Darfur rebellion led by the two major rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the land-tilling Fur,Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups.
2004–present: The Shi'ite Uprising against the US-led occupation of Iraq.
2004: After Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner of a presidential election in Ukraine, the Orange Revolution arose and installed him as president, believing the election to have been fraudulent. This was the third colour revolution.
2004: A failed attempt at popular colour-style revolution in Azerbaijan, led by the groups Yox! and Azadlig.
2004–present: The Naxalite insurgency in India, led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
2005: The Cedar Revolution, triggered by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, asks for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
2005: The Tulip Revolution (a.k.a. Pink/Yellow Revolution) overthrows the President of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, and set new elections. This is the fourth colour revolution.
2006–present: 2006 democracy movement in Nepal.
2006: The 2006 Oaxaca protests demanding the removal of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the governor of Oaxaca state in Mexico.
2006–present: The Mexican Drug War.
2007: The popular uprising against the terrorist organization al-Qa'eda by residents of Anbar Province, Iraq.[17]
2007–present: The Civil war in Ingushetia within Russia.
2007–2009: The Second Tuareg Rebellion in Niger.
2007: The Burmese anti-government protests, including the Saffron Revolution of Burmese Buddhist monks.
2008: A Shiite uprising in Basra.
Attacks in Lanao del Norte in the Philippines by Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by Kumander Bravo and Umbrfa Kato.
2009: After the disputed Iranian presidential election, an uprising known as the Green Movement started in Iran, demanding the resignation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2009: 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh killing 57 army officers.
2009: In January, a popular uprising called the saucepan revolution brought down the Icelandic government 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests, after the collapse of the Icelandic financial system in October 2008.
2010: 2010 Kyrgyzstani uprising.
2010: Riots in Bangkok.
I was in Sutton, the town I currently live in meeting up with my best friend (whom I think of as a little sister – there is a year between us, so for all intents and purposes entirely possible IMHO) and her dad. We had had a lovely afternoon of tea and conversation, and were walking down the main street of the town and there were a group of youths. Not one of them were over 24, they were there for some reason – but those reasons were rather obscure – I still don't know why they were there.
As I am walking down the street, 3 year old godson at my side, I hear a youngster (I am only 29) start talking about how the youth of today are only looking for a hand out. Then I hear him utter the worst thing imaginable; “We need a revolution” I don't know if it would have had such an emotively powerful, sucker punch reaction had I not read my friends entry, but my blood ran so cold, it was ice fire that fuelled its way through my veins. The fellow speaking couldn't have been older than 18.
Revolution (n) An overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed. It is a cold definition, it lacks what is going on, the sociology dictionary puts it a little better ; a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.
What people often seem to miss is a revolution is long time coming and a long time lasting. And what is really going on is only ever seen by the outside world is cold statistics and often smuggled film footage. Cold and remote. On the ground, as has been seen so often through history, the common person is the one to pay the highest price.
An initial revolution can be a few months or a few years. For example the French revolution, if you look at just within France's boarders there is around 250,000 lost in … NINE MONTHS. In total including the revolutionary wars 1.4 million men were killed (Sorokin, P., The Sociology of Revolution, 1967) The point is, whilst a fair enough amount of these were soldiers – who to a greater or lesser extent we expect to lose in battle. I doubt they ever expected that their own people, their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers or children would be the ones killing them.
As if that isn't enough lets look at the English Civil war, here too it fits the criteria for a revolution. The common people uprising against the powerful, changing as they go the system at play from an autocratic, royalist control, to a democratic power (1642 -47) it is calculated that for a country of 4 million souls – 100-000 died of either fighting or disease attributable to being at war. Not to mention we used the law that King Charles I brought back (impeachment), something his father told him not to do, because it could be used against him, against him – he lost his head in 1647.
America, herself, has not been brought with out blood-shed the American revolutionary war also known as the War of Independence cost around 50,000 men their lives. Though exact figures are not available so this figure may be a lot higher. This war saw governorship of the Colony of America becoming American owned instead of being a part of Great Britain. The American Civil war, between the confederacy and the Union of States cost 620,000 lives of soldiers and an un-calculated loss of civilian life. It resulted in Northern rule over the southern states effectively unifying the country, ending slavery in the southern states and the reconstruction of the 11 seceding states would effect self governorship.
Finally I present a more recent Revolution; The Russian Revolution. (This is by no means an exhaustive list and I will give examples of others that have occurred in the past 20 years) The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not a singular revolution but a series of them, all in the same year, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy. In the February and October of the year the Provsional Government disposed – literally – of the aristocracy and any of their supporters, The Provisional Government was deposed in the October Revolution which led to a Russian civil war lasting until 1922 between the reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (Anti-Bolsheviks). Between 1917 and 1922 9.5 million deaths are thought to have occurred through battle and disease. This led inevitably to Stalin led Russia, and a cold war between East and West.
So to look at it, between these four revolutions we have accounted for 11,620,000 deaths, just changing regime's from autocratic to either democratic or communist. And the effects are not just immediate – most regime's develop a severe sense of paranoia – the English Civil war led to the Pilgrim fathers leaving from Portsmouth to America because they had supported republican concerns, when Charles II was restored during the restoration. The Russians were even more paranoid – 4.5 million were lost through democides – not to mention those that were vanished to Siberia.
So we come back to the 18 year old speaking on the corner of my town, microphone in hand and the vigour of youth in his veins. What does he know of revolution other than that of fast change? What would he think if he knew what the figures were, if we could somehow translate that into something meaningful to him. I agree with him in only one aspect. Yes things do need to change. But revolution has rarely been a good way to carry out that change.
Revolution has often been about the powerless gaining power, through violent means. Maintaining that power often means quelling uprisings from the deposed and placing them into the position of the powerless. And so a self-perpetuating mess begins to show itself. It is always the case that the average person is the one on the raw end. The ones that have to bear the brunt of the financing of a war, it is also them that face the fear and the death, the disruption and persecution.
So how should we exact some form of change? A fast solution seems great, but isn't after all. So perhaps pragmatism is a solution. Working within the system that you wish to change. And perhaps it is more of a generational change. A movement should not be disheartened by a seeming lack of progress on a large scale, each small change exacted is a victory in and of itself. Perhaps the ethos for those wishing to change the world should be work from within, compromise in idealism, cling to your conscience.
As for my friend who inspired some deep thoughts of their own, and of whom I was so reminded by this child's mis-thought words? A phrase comes to mind. The truest of hearts are tried by the hardest of times.
(For those interested in Revolutions in the past 20 years, some of which are ongoing, the list – taken from Wikipedia – follows.)
1990–present: United Liberation Front of Asom launch major violent activities against Indian rule in Assam.To date, the resulting clashes with the Indian army have left more than 10,000 dead.[16]
1990-1992: Anticommunist forces led a National Democratic Revolution dhe overthrew President Ramiz Alia and ended with the win of elections byDemocratic Party of Albania the biggest anticommunist party in Albania.
1990–1995: The Log Revolution in Croatia starts, triggering the Croatian War of Independence.
1990–1995: The First Tuareg Rebellion in Niger and Mali.
1991: The Kurdish uprising against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in Iraqi Kurdistan.
1991: The Shiite Uprising in Karbala, Iraq.
1991: The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front take control of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, after dictator Haile Mariam Mengistuflees the country, bringing an end to the Ethiopian Civil War
1992–1995: Bosnian War of Independence.
1992: An Afghan uprising against the Taliban by United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, or the Northern Alliance.
1994: The 1990s Uprising in Bahrain, Shiite-led rebellion for the restoration of democracy in Bahrain.
1994: The Zapatista Rebellion: an uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas demanding equal rights for indigenous peoples and in opposition to growing neoliberalism in North America.
1994–1996: The First Chechen Rebellion against Russia.
1996: An Islamic movement in Afghanistan led by the Taliban established Taliban rule.
1997: The 1997 rebellion in Albania sparked by Ponzi scheme failures.
1997–1999: The Kosovo Rebellion against Yugoslavia.
1998: The election in Venezuela of socialist leader Hugo Chávez is called the Bolivarian Revolution.
1998: The Indonesian Revolution of 1998 resulted the resignation of President Suharto after three decades of the New Order period.
1999–present: The Second Chechen Rebellion against Russia.
1999: The Iran student protests, July 1999 were, at the time, the most violent protests to occur against the islamic regime of Iran.
[edit]2000–present
2000–present: The Second Intifada a continuation of the First Intifada. The wave of violence that began in September 2000 between Palestinian Arabs and Israelis.
2000: The bloodless Bulldozer Revolution, first of the four colour revolutions, overthrows Slobodan Milošević's régime in Yugoslavia.
2001: The 2001 Macedonia conflict.
2001–present: The Taliban insurgency following the 2001 war in Afghanistan which overthrow Taliban rule.
2001: The 2001 EDSA Revolution peacefully ousts Philippine President Joseph Estrada after the collapse of his impeachment trial.
2001: Supporters of Philippines former president Joseph Estrada violently and unsuccessfully stage a rally, so-called the EDSA Tres, in an attempt of returning him to power.
2003: The Rose Revolution, second of the colour revolutions, displaces the president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, and calls new elections.
2003–present: The Iraqi insurgency refers to the armed resistance by diverse groups within Iraq to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and to the establishment of a liberal democracy therein.
2003–present: The Darfur rebellion led by the two major rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the land-tilling Fur,Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups.
2004–present: The Shi'ite Uprising against the US-led occupation of Iraq.
2004: After Viktor Yanukovych was declared the winner of a presidential election in Ukraine, the Orange Revolution arose and installed him as president, believing the election to have been fraudulent. This was the third colour revolution.
2004: A failed attempt at popular colour-style revolution in Azerbaijan, led by the groups Yox! and Azadlig.
2004–present: The Naxalite insurgency in India, led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
2005: The Cedar Revolution, triggered by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, asks for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
2005: The Tulip Revolution (a.k.a. Pink/Yellow Revolution) overthrows the President of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, and set new elections. This is the fourth colour revolution.
2006–present: 2006 democracy movement in Nepal.
2006: The 2006 Oaxaca protests demanding the removal of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the governor of Oaxaca state in Mexico.
2006–present: The Mexican Drug War.
2007: The popular uprising against the terrorist organization al-Qa'eda by residents of Anbar Province, Iraq.[17]
2007–present: The Civil war in Ingushetia within Russia.
2007–2009: The Second Tuareg Rebellion in Niger.
2007: The Burmese anti-government protests, including the Saffron Revolution of Burmese Buddhist monks.
2008: A Shiite uprising in Basra.
Attacks in Lanao del Norte in the Philippines by Moro Islamic Liberation Front led by Kumander Bravo and Umbrfa Kato.
2009: After the disputed Iranian presidential election, an uprising known as the Green Movement started in Iran, demanding the resignation of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2009: 2009 Bangladesh Rifles revolt took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh killing 57 army officers.
2009: In January, a popular uprising called the saucepan revolution brought down the Icelandic government 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests, after the collapse of the Icelandic financial system in October 2008.
2010: 2010 Kyrgyzstani uprising.
2010: Riots in Bangkok.