The Reckless Romanticizing of Revolution
It's been the talk of the town this past weekend for those of us here in Boston. From large-scale battle reenactments at Lexington and Concord to a mounted Paul Revere in costume riding his horse around downtown, the city has been immersed in the 250th celebration of the historical rebellion that shook the very foundation of world history. At a time when the sun never set on the British Empire, 13 lowly colonies 3,000 miles away from London seemed unlikely to protest, never mind bring an armed rebellion against the motherland. When a ragtag group of Minutemen came together and launched the "shots heard round the world," it became clear that a breaking point had been reached and the colonists were ready to take up arms for their cause. Less than 14 months later, the Declaration of Independence was signed and there was no turning back. The American Revolution and all its glory was in full effect.
With any milestone celebration there has been much introspection here in the region, mainly on the parallels between the world of 1775 and today. While much has certainly changed, Americans are now facing a 21st century version of tyranny, as was pointed out on a projection on the historic Old North Church in Boston this past weekend. With a new tyrant in tow, the message was clear: it's time for a second American Revolution.
The problem with the sentiment is that those who are chanting the loudest are also the most ignorant of actual revolution. Because throughout history, revolution has not been a pretty sight. Revolutions are violent and messy. The French Revolution. The Haitian Revolution. The Russian Revolution. The Chinese Revolution. Those that want to be modern-day revolutionaries do not have an understanding of how these revolutions unfolded. Sacrifices were made. Entire families were murdered. Towns and villages were destroyed. These were multi-year efforts whose end result was often was even more convoluted than when the revolution itself began. Sure, there were successes like the American and Haitian revolutions. But the failures of other revolutions hit hard. So much given up for so little gained. It was like revolution wasn't the cure-all it was perceived to be.
Not knowing this history means you are intentionally misleading your followers. We've all heard certain politicians talking about political revolutions over the past decade. But as we all know, you need more than a High Sparrow spouting the same talking points for 50 years to get people to act. A political revolution in itself is not even a revolution; it's merely left-wing populism that wants its own authoritarian on the throne. Believing that millions of people will suddenly rise up against tyranny is not a revolution but instead is a pipe dream set in place by an ineffective leader whose own followers can't even be bothered to make it to the voting booth to vote for the leader themselves. If the calls for revolution are coming from one person and one person alone then that revolution is destined for failure. Never in history has there been a revolution based on a singular, unpopular ideology and that won't happen here anytime soon.
Fascism is at our door, that much is clear. But even entertaining the idea of a second American Revolution is a non-starter. It's a fool's errand. We've seen rolling rallies these past two weekend across all 50 states against the Trump regime but attending a Saturday afternoon rally with your child in a baby stroller is quite different from rising up against a tyrannical government. An actual revolution would involve mobilizing. It would involve military training. It would involve going off the grid, away from wifi and cell phones. It would involve a conscientious decision to leave everyone and everything you care about behind to take on the largest and most technologically advanced military in world history. This revolution wouldn't be some RPG shooter. It would be real life with real world consequences. It would be war on American soil for the first time in over 200 years and would end up having civilians living is isolated communities like an episode of The Last of Us. Nothing that we've done would prepare us for that type of situation no matter how much we may have thought about revolution in our own minds.
So while those among us continue to talk tough about revolution, know this: it won't be happening. No matter how bad things get these next 43 months, revolution is never an option. Rather than projecting messages onto buildings, what actually helps dispose our current tyrant is voting, donating to swing state Democrats, and supporting pro-democracy groups like Democracy Docket who are on the front lines against the current fascist regime. Those actions don't draw headlines. But 250 years from now when we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the American Revolution, knowing that we did what we could to preserve the union will be our ultimate act of courage.
And is much more effective than being a cosplay revolutionary.
Fascism is at our door, that much is clear. But even entertaining the idea of a second American Revolution is a non-starter. It's a fool's errand. We've seen rolling rallies these past two weekend across all 50 states against the Trump regime but attending a Saturday afternoon rally with your child in a baby stroller is quite different from rising up against a tyrannical government. An actual revolution would involve mobilizing. It would involve military training. It would involve going off the grid, away from wifi and cell phones. It would involve a conscientious decision to leave everyone and everything you care about behind to take on the largest and most technologically advanced military in world history. This revolution wouldn't be some RPG shooter. It would be real life with real world consequences. It would be war on American soil for the first time in over 200 years and would end up having civilians living is isolated communities like an episode of The Last of Us. Nothing that we've done would prepare us for that type of situation no matter how much we may have thought about revolution in our own minds.
So while those among us continue to talk tough about revolution, know this: it won't be happening. No matter how bad things get these next 43 months, revolution is never an option. Rather than projecting messages onto buildings, what actually helps dispose our current tyrant is voting, donating to swing state Democrats, and supporting pro-democracy groups like Democracy Docket who are on the front lines against the current fascist regime. Those actions don't draw headlines. But 250 years from now when we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the American Revolution, knowing that we did what we could to preserve the union will be our ultimate act of courage.
And is much more effective than being a cosplay revolutionary.