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It has been a long day and I am going to bed soon. I have a few thoughts I wanted to purge before I do so, and that's what LJ is here for.
Tonight, I watched The Patriot for the first time. Ethan is studying the Revolutionary War right now and he's mentioned liking the movie, so we sat down to relax and put it in. (Ethan told me that no one else in his class had heard of the Stamp Act before and that most of his class thought the war was fought, not against the British, but against Europe.) All in all it was a decent movie. Mel Gibson at his rebellious best; Jason Isaacs of Lucius Malfoy fame at his most evil.
However, it got me thinking about revolution. In general, I find revolution a bit silly. It implies going around once, and stopping where you started. In the movie Mel addresses this in reference to being ruled by Mad King George, concerning whether he's better off being ruled by one tyrant three-thousand miles away or by three-thousand tyrants one mile away. Somewhere I heard someone say that the only people who want revolution are the ones who want to be on top when the wheel comes back around. The oppressed must revert to just-as-evil tactics in order to win against that which they fight.
The U.S. had to be more ruthless than the Nazis to win WWII. Then we absorbed their intelligence and science communities into our own. Everyone has seen the similarities drawn between early Nazi Germany and the current status of the U.S. Could it be true that we become what we hate? However, what do we do when it is obvious that change is needed?
Real change is evolution, not revolution. Evolution implies a transcendence and inclusion of a previous status. We have to somehow completely bypass the current system, go above and beyond it. Somehow make their system of My Country, My People completely obsolete. We need to stop cowering before the newest enemy they throw at us. Show them that their culture of fear is nothing but a child's plaything. A scary movie which they forget is only a movie.
But practically, pragmatically, what can be done? Who will do it? How bad does it have to get before we stand up and say enough is enough? Everyone is so splintered in their various pet causes that it seems impossible that we could ever get behind a unifying principle. Is that even the answer?
Ken Kesey went to a massive anti-war rally during Vietnam. He walked up to the microphone and told everyone to just walk away. Turn their backs on it. They have wars, you protest them. That's their game, and we're playing right into it. Go home.
Go home and wake up. Open the windows. Let some light in.
Maybe that's the answer.
Tonight, I watched The Patriot for the first time. Ethan is studying the Revolutionary War right now and he's mentioned liking the movie, so we sat down to relax and put it in. (Ethan told me that no one else in his class had heard of the Stamp Act before and that most of his class thought the war was fought, not against the British, but against Europe.) All in all it was a decent movie. Mel Gibson at his rebellious best; Jason Isaacs of Lucius Malfoy fame at his most evil.
However, it got me thinking about revolution. In general, I find revolution a bit silly. It implies going around once, and stopping where you started. In the movie Mel addresses this in reference to being ruled by Mad King George, concerning whether he's better off being ruled by one tyrant three-thousand miles away or by three-thousand tyrants one mile away. Somewhere I heard someone say that the only people who want revolution are the ones who want to be on top when the wheel comes back around. The oppressed must revert to just-as-evil tactics in order to win against that which they fight.
The U.S. had to be more ruthless than the Nazis to win WWII. Then we absorbed their intelligence and science communities into our own. Everyone has seen the similarities drawn between early Nazi Germany and the current status of the U.S. Could it be true that we become what we hate? However, what do we do when it is obvious that change is needed?
Real change is evolution, not revolution. Evolution implies a transcendence and inclusion of a previous status. We have to somehow completely bypass the current system, go above and beyond it. Somehow make their system of My Country, My People completely obsolete. We need to stop cowering before the newest enemy they throw at us. Show them that their culture of fear is nothing but a child's plaything. A scary movie which they forget is only a movie.
But practically, pragmatically, what can be done? Who will do it? How bad does it have to get before we stand up and say enough is enough? Everyone is so splintered in their various pet causes that it seems impossible that we could ever get behind a unifying principle. Is that even the answer?
Ken Kesey went to a massive anti-war rally during Vietnam. He walked up to the microphone and told everyone to just walk away. Turn their backs on it. They have wars, you protest them. That's their game, and we're playing right into it. Go home.
Go home and wake up. Open the windows. Let some light in.
Maybe that's the answer.
