Love this. I taught revolutions/movements and hope my kids saw the micro and macro elements. France is in its 5th Republic so things took awhile. Sometimes it seems they don’t but there’s the “solidarity” on the ground and then Lech Walesa speaks out. Gandhi built huge grassroots movements for years that mattered more to the British than the revolutionary Tilak who kinda flamed out. Lasting change does seem to be woven into the community building DNA. Minneapolis’ rapid response was aided by technology. Kinda like Arab Spring. Time will tell. I’m just glad to see this stack and discussion. Thx.
My revolution is on the public road. I drive donkeys in public to demonstrate that it is possible. I consider it to be a revolutionary act. People look at me and say, "You have the right idea."
My other revolutionary act is that I *always* drive below the speed limit.
I'm living by my beliefs. Not entirely, because the necessary infrastructure has been destroyed and eliminated, covered with concrete and nearly infinite tons of metal and plastic going a mile every minute.
But as you say, what I believe would work, nearly nobody else does. If we had a shooting revolution I'm pretty sure I'd wind up at the guillotine.
Excellent, excellent, superb essay, once again as so often. Thank you.
Thanks! We're on the same page. I also believe I'd wind up at the guillotine. Over the last several years, I've seen many would-be revolutionaries shed much of their humanity and intelligence. Just because someone's trying to form a revolution doesn't mean I feel safe around them. Often it's the opposite. Daily actions like yours matter. Like others have said, the climate clock might end civilization, however you define it, but I think people are going to be around for a while yet. Industrial civilization or none, these ideas apply. People need to get used to seeing donkeys on the road again.
Definitely. It's a core belief in MAGA, peddled by grifters. But I see it a lot everywhere. Someone else is doing well, so it means they took something from you. It fuels a lot of nasty interactions on here as well. I have to check myself on this front at times.
I think one reason we aren't seeing the levels of protest one would expect is that a lot of resistance is more practical than a street march. When ICE showed up in Chicago and Minneapolis, for example, locals mobilized. They distributed whistles, they taught people how to evade stormtroopers. The resistance is also using an army of lawyers. Every time the goons in power try something, a lawsuit is filed.
Even climate change is being looked upon as a practical challenge. One look at your many posts here on Substack — for example, how to collect and store rainfall (just one of many such posts) — provides a good reflection on this. You're cutting edge there, but I can see that building. And it's not all BS. It's real. It's crafted out of experience and genuine, gritty reality.
I wrote a short fiction piece about "So you want a revolution?" A different approach, but one in full agreement with your thoughts here, I'd say:
You'd think with my pen name I'd be all over the "Jacobin" thing, but mostly I just think "Jacobin" is an interesting magazine that contributes alternatives to these dark times.
One of my favorite and unattributed sayings is that not to design something is to suffer design by default. Time for me in my own way, and in my community, to design a plan of how I can resist and help.
I appreciate your perspective and discussion of this. I appreciated the back and forth you had with Andra Watkins around why Americans aren’t rising up. I appreciate the perspectives of those who leave their comments.
The truth is, what is the “BEST” or “CORRECT” course of action to take….this is what I wrestle with every day. What to spend my time on? Where can I make a difference and how big of a difference does it have to be to justify it?
There’s pressure from so many to do this or do that, call these people, protest here, boycott this, donate to this cause, rise up…
I could stand on the street corner day after day holding my sign and the likelihood of that garnering enough momentum to change anything is so small, but spending the same time in my garden, growing food that I hope to eat AND donate to the food bank…that makes a boots on the ground difference, too. Still small, but significant to my family and someone else’s. Does it count?
Thank you for this interesting post. I wonder if that's why Canadians are different from Americans: our natural environment (specifically the winter weather) demands that we take care of each other. Never drive past someone in the ditch, check on people when the power goes out, watch for each others' kids playing hockey on the road... These all add up.
Community organizing to educate people about socialism we've been lied to about and how it works in Europe. This is also a setting for finding other like minded people. We need more progressives running against the Dem establishment. They come from the community.
That's a good one. But do we have time left? Aren't we forced into a fragmented, isolated, individualist, bound to survival society, even then, will global warming gives us the time? My proposal is bold. I won't run for president, at 57. Still, There is a way, for there is a will. The survivor of the second round, either from the "reasonable"right or the "reasonable"left, will have to face the contender populist, either in France or in the U.S.; that said he will have to gather the votes from the whole political spectrum, just to bar the populist to win. That can be done through a simple, four proposals, convergence treaty than can transcend the left right/divide on both sides of the pond, and beyond. -Equality Bonus, Housing Stability, Inflation buffer, and the master piece, Dual time Labour contract. Check my profile to get the pdf. Or download it here (scroll down to the bottom) https://seaquatoria.org/atlantic-union
This seems rather bog-standard. Revolution and incrementalism of what? Seems to me, under a capitalist society, it would be that which hits the source of profits hardest. If that's not progressive reduction of the workday, then it is neither revolutionary nor incremental. You could directly apply everything in the article to any other political strand in America as a basis for this supposed enduring and protracted "revolution": white nationalism; paleoconservatism; Christian dominionism; etc. If the formula is to just slowly build roots in your community over time, then this is just a kind of oversimplified Maoism. The KKK, at its heights, did the same thing. They embedded themselves into the very fabric of their communities: held picnics, gave money to churches, volunteered, held parades, etc. Action which does not show up in people's materially lives will go by the wayside---no matter how much you love them or build bonds, etc. People are ultimately interested in how they produce and reproduce themselves. That is what a proletarian is: those that have nothing else to contribute to society but their labor-power; the poorest of the poors. The overcoming of this is not necessarily violence or even cohesion but a terminable limit where being proletariat is superseded by the burden of the conditions under which the proletariat reproduces themselves and the form of wealth which is antithetical to their own propagation. What do you want the proletariat to build? They already paid for a world that no longer needs them outside of the one measly commodity they have to sell. Why is it so brutish to people to emphasize that reducing the workweek and generating free-time are immediate forms of action? That the revolution you believe can't be "fastforwarded" already occurred in the priming of this novel kind of society that has yet to be born from the old one?
I don’t really see the suggestion of formula here. Too many factors at play and if anyone has a formula, please step forward. I read this as a thought piece on what brought people together to affect lasting moral change rather than the revolutionary ideologue who cannot implement the changes.
This piece is my favorite of yours in some time. I always appreciate your writing and this one stands out for me. Real pragmatism and depth of history combined with a call to action. Thank you, and keep writing.
Revolutions have been the traditional method of removal of feudal rulers, be it in France, Russia or China and it's the only way to end our Corporate Feudal system. Perhaps some virtual images of our billionaire and tech overlords' heads atop poles might make them think twice about where they're taking us, but I suspect only real physical decapitation would produce the desired result, with patchwork groups playing the part of the tricoteuses.
You can chop off a feudal leader's head, but without the cultural shifts, feudalism remains. Or do you imagine Putin is anything other than a feudal tsar? Xi?
“but we need something more than our phones and our snark” — brilliant
Gold.
Love this. I taught revolutions/movements and hope my kids saw the micro and macro elements. France is in its 5th Republic so things took awhile. Sometimes it seems they don’t but there’s the “solidarity” on the ground and then Lech Walesa speaks out. Gandhi built huge grassroots movements for years that mattered more to the British than the revolutionary Tilak who kinda flamed out. Lasting change does seem to be woven into the community building DNA. Minneapolis’ rapid response was aided by technology. Kinda like Arab Spring. Time will tell. I’m just glad to see this stack and discussion. Thx.
My revolution is on the public road. I drive donkeys in public to demonstrate that it is possible. I consider it to be a revolutionary act. People look at me and say, "You have the right idea."
My other revolutionary act is that I *always* drive below the speed limit.
I'm living by my beliefs. Not entirely, because the necessary infrastructure has been destroyed and eliminated, covered with concrete and nearly infinite tons of metal and plastic going a mile every minute.
But as you say, what I believe would work, nearly nobody else does. If we had a shooting revolution I'm pretty sure I'd wind up at the guillotine.
Excellent, excellent, superb essay, once again as so often. Thank you.
Thanks! We're on the same page. I also believe I'd wind up at the guillotine. Over the last several years, I've seen many would-be revolutionaries shed much of their humanity and intelligence. Just because someone's trying to form a revolution doesn't mean I feel safe around them. Often it's the opposite. Daily actions like yours matter. Like others have said, the climate clock might end civilization, however you define it, but I think people are going to be around for a while yet. Industrial civilization or none, these ideas apply. People need to get used to seeing donkeys on the road again.
BTW, one of the more fruitful thoughts I’ve seen lately is the embedded idea that everything is a zero sum game - that simply isn’t true.
Definitely. It's a core belief in MAGA, peddled by grifters. But I see it a lot everywhere. Someone else is doing well, so it means they took something from you. It fuels a lot of nasty interactions on here as well. I have to check myself on this front at times.
P.S. Typos fixed. Apparently, my spellchecker extension wasn't on.
I think one reason we aren't seeing the levels of protest one would expect is that a lot of resistance is more practical than a street march. When ICE showed up in Chicago and Minneapolis, for example, locals mobilized. They distributed whistles, they taught people how to evade stormtroopers. The resistance is also using an army of lawyers. Every time the goons in power try something, a lawsuit is filed.
Even climate change is being looked upon as a practical challenge. One look at your many posts here on Substack — for example, how to collect and store rainfall (just one of many such posts) — provides a good reflection on this. You're cutting edge there, but I can see that building. And it's not all BS. It's real. It's crafted out of experience and genuine, gritty reality.
I wrote a short fiction piece about "So you want a revolution?" A different approach, but one in full agreement with your thoughts here, I'd say:
https://www.ruminato.com/p/conversations-on-a-bank-floor
You'd think with my pen name I'd be all over the "Jacobin" thing, but mostly I just think "Jacobin" is an interesting magazine that contributes alternatives to these dark times.
One of my favorite and unattributed sayings is that not to design something is to suffer design by default. Time for me in my own way, and in my community, to design a plan of how I can resist and help.
I appreciate your perspective and discussion of this. I appreciated the back and forth you had with Andra Watkins around why Americans aren’t rising up. I appreciate the perspectives of those who leave their comments.
The truth is, what is the “BEST” or “CORRECT” course of action to take….this is what I wrestle with every day. What to spend my time on? Where can I make a difference and how big of a difference does it have to be to justify it?
There’s pressure from so many to do this or do that, call these people, protest here, boycott this, donate to this cause, rise up…
I could stand on the street corner day after day holding my sign and the likelihood of that garnering enough momentum to change anything is so small, but spending the same time in my garden, growing food that I hope to eat AND donate to the food bank…that makes a boots on the ground difference, too. Still small, but significant to my family and someone else’s. Does it count?
This aging hippie peacenik remembers a related song from that time: "Won't Get Fooled Again," by the Who. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."🎶
Thank you for this interesting post. I wonder if that's why Canadians are different from Americans: our natural environment (specifically the winter weather) demands that we take care of each other. Never drive past someone in the ditch, check on people when the power goes out, watch for each others' kids playing hockey on the road... These all add up.
Community organizing to educate people about socialism we've been lied to about and how it works in Europe. This is also a setting for finding other like minded people. We need more progressives running against the Dem establishment. They come from the community.
That's a good one. But do we have time left? Aren't we forced into a fragmented, isolated, individualist, bound to survival society, even then, will global warming gives us the time? My proposal is bold. I won't run for president, at 57. Still, There is a way, for there is a will. The survivor of the second round, either from the "reasonable"right or the "reasonable"left, will have to face the contender populist, either in France or in the U.S.; that said he will have to gather the votes from the whole political spectrum, just to bar the populist to win. That can be done through a simple, four proposals, convergence treaty than can transcend the left right/divide on both sides of the pond, and beyond. -Equality Bonus, Housing Stability, Inflation buffer, and the master piece, Dual time Labour contract. Check my profile to get the pdf. Or download it here (scroll down to the bottom) https://seaquatoria.org/atlantic-union
Also - the Beatles did it well, but it might be that the Who did it even better. "...and the morals that we worshipped will be gone." https://youtu.be/UDfAdHBtK_Q?is=iP2cEf3OTJ66U3dY
This seems rather bog-standard. Revolution and incrementalism of what? Seems to me, under a capitalist society, it would be that which hits the source of profits hardest. If that's not progressive reduction of the workday, then it is neither revolutionary nor incremental. You could directly apply everything in the article to any other political strand in America as a basis for this supposed enduring and protracted "revolution": white nationalism; paleoconservatism; Christian dominionism; etc. If the formula is to just slowly build roots in your community over time, then this is just a kind of oversimplified Maoism. The KKK, at its heights, did the same thing. They embedded themselves into the very fabric of their communities: held picnics, gave money to churches, volunteered, held parades, etc. Action which does not show up in people's materially lives will go by the wayside---no matter how much you love them or build bonds, etc. People are ultimately interested in how they produce and reproduce themselves. That is what a proletarian is: those that have nothing else to contribute to society but their labor-power; the poorest of the poors. The overcoming of this is not necessarily violence or even cohesion but a terminable limit where being proletariat is superseded by the burden of the conditions under which the proletariat reproduces themselves and the form of wealth which is antithetical to their own propagation. What do you want the proletariat to build? They already paid for a world that no longer needs them outside of the one measly commodity they have to sell. Why is it so brutish to people to emphasize that reducing the workweek and generating free-time are immediate forms of action? That the revolution you believe can't be "fastforwarded" already occurred in the priming of this novel kind of society that has yet to be born from the old one?
I don’t really see the suggestion of formula here. Too many factors at play and if anyone has a formula, please step forward. I read this as a thought piece on what brought people together to affect lasting moral change rather than the revolutionary ideologue who cannot implement the changes.
This piece is my favorite of yours in some time. I always appreciate your writing and this one stands out for me. Real pragmatism and depth of history combined with a call to action. Thank you, and keep writing.
Excellent essay. There is a path forward.
Revolutions have been the traditional method of removal of feudal rulers, be it in France, Russia or China and it's the only way to end our Corporate Feudal system. Perhaps some virtual images of our billionaire and tech overlords' heads atop poles might make them think twice about where they're taking us, but I suspect only real physical decapitation would produce the desired result, with patchwork groups playing the part of the tricoteuses.
You can chop off a feudal leader's head, but without the cultural shifts, feudalism remains. Or do you imagine Putin is anything other than a feudal tsar? Xi?