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The revival of violent revolution [1]
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Date: 2025-03-24
“But when you talk about destruction, don’t you know that you can count me out.”
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, “Revolution”
The 2020’s—dominated by ongoing pandemics of uncertainty, angst, and disruption, along with genuine microbes—have not been stable times. I recall the general unrest of another turbulent era: the 1960’s and 1970’s. What is missing so far in modern times is the sense of open possibilities—though that could be due to the fact that I am so much older, now, and have earned a bit of cynicism. However, young people nowadays seem to be quite cynical too. We see repeats of happenings from days gone by: mass demonstrations, protests, riots, police violence—and civilian violence. When a young scion of social and economic privilege gunned down the CEO of a health insurance company, in the process becoming something of a folk hero, I got a sense of deja vu. All those years ago, radical groups, such as the Symbionese Liberation Army and Weather Underground, robbed, kidnapped, and murdered, in pursuit of liberty and justice for all. How well did that work out?
Like the 2024 accused shooter of the healthcare CEO, the radical foot soldiers of the sixties and seventies were children of considerable wealth and privilege. Those men and women had been highly educated in prestigious universities, where they learned about rampant inequality and injustice in American society. Determined to make quick changes, they adopted violence to attain true democracy. In league with radicals from minority groups, these young people embarked on criminal adventures that did little to alter society (at least not for the better) but certainly changed their own lives.
After WWII, Americans gradually learned that our society sorely needed fundamental changes. African-Americans, who had been guaranteed equal rights since the end of the Civil War, were still basically second-class citizens; in some states, they were barely freer than slaves. Millions of Euro-Americans were also living in economic privation, even poverty. Pollution had severely degraded the environment. Members of the middle class increased in numbers and enjoyed unheard-of prosperity, but they also experienced a growing awareness of having become wage slaves. The United States, the democratic republic that had saved much of the world from fascism, was undertaking the role of the world’s policeman, having become a colonial power in all but name. The result was the Vietnam quagmire. Thousands of Americans were dying, for questionable purposes. Millions of young Americans were shocked at their fabled country’s slide toward tyranny.
The resulting radicalization of educated young Americans from privileged backgrounds caused some of them to seek violent solutions to cultural problems. Being children of privilege, perhaps they were accustomed to getting what they demanded, and had no recourse but violence when their demands were rebuffed. Of course, on looking back we can see that those privileged Americans were customarily obeyed because the people who tended to their wants were paid to serve them. When the children of privilege made direct demands on the ultra-wealthy elites they had been groomed to serve, the results were different.
In some ways we relived the American Revolution, when the upper middle class fought to replace the upper class. The difference was that in the 1960’s and 1970’s the upper class was not in England, but right here at home, and was still firmly in control, retaining the loyalty of most of the common people. The elites used their established resources: police and military from proletarian ranks, to overwhelm the out-numbered and out-gunned revolutionaries. Some revolutionaries died in shootouts with the authorities. Others went underground, assumed new identities, and hid from capture, probably with help from their relatives in the establishment. Some went to prison. Those who survived over the years eventually took on “normal” lives within establishment constraints. Some are still around. But their youthful adventures in violent revolution came to nought. The rulers emerged more powerful than before. Our nation’s steady march toward fascism continued; half a century later, we have arrived.
Besides the culture-wide panic and grief that violence causes, history shows that revolutionary violence, even for a good cause (aren’t they all?) is unreliable for actually achieving the desired goal of a beneficial society. In the first place, violence makes people mad. Anger leads to violent retaliation, followed by more anger. To deal with the growing chaos, autocratic figures rise to the top, restoring order by taking supreme power, eliminating opposition and settling things once and for all in their favor. Violence may topple existing authoritarian regimes, but it seldom engenders democracy. The American Revolution violently freed colonists from rule by the British crown. But independence caused chaos, until leading public figures in the new nation gathered peacefully to hammer out the Constitution which established a stable republic for over two centuries.
Revolutions in Russia, China, Vietnam, Algeria, Iran, and many other countries prove that usually, armed revolts only change autocrats. Peaceful revolutions have successfully brought about better conditions for formerly oppressed people. India, the Southern United States, and South Africa stand out in recent history for achieving tangible, lasting goals of peacefully extending human rights. Leaders of peaceful resistance: Gandhi, King and Mandela, struggled for many years, before they wore down their oppressors and earned the support of the outside world, to win freedom for their people. Their victories have not been automatically permanent. Once liberated, people are responsible for meeting the ongoing challenges of maintaining government by the people. New generations have to adjust to changing times to keep what was won for them.
Peaceful revolution through civil disobedience works because it forces everyone, even the oppressors, to clearly see the fundamental humanity we all share. When Dr. King led the civil rights protesters in the American South, the world got to watch authorities brutally abusing fellow human beings who only wanted what everyone wants. The brief public awareness that “they” are really “us” brought about new laws to protect and enhance everybody’s basic rights. In India, Gandhi’s peaceful resistance not only disrupted the effective rule of the British Raj; it made the British people realize how similar they were to the people of India. Britons, not wanting to live under oppression, naturally wondered why they should be fighting to oppress others. Nelson Mandela’s long imprisonment while leading South Africa’s brutally repressed yet peaceful fight for freedom finally convinced the world to turn peacefully yet convincingly against the apartheid regime.
Successful revolutions through civil disobedience must be followed by continual participation in democratic government. Power-hungry greed never rests, and is always ready to pounce on people who tire of meeting the constant need for all sides to make boring, never fully-satisfying compromises with each other. India, South Africa, and the United States, like other nations, are currently challenged by social and political lethargy, with resulting corruption and oligarchy. But the peacefully established institutions of self-government remain, if we choose to use them.
Violence, on the other hand, plays right into the hands of oligarchs, who control the violent apparatus of the State, and are willing and able to use it. Few people were sympathetic to the murdered healthcare CEO, but most are also against solving problems with murder. As was the case in the sixties and seventies, our country is still ruled by elites, who now rob everyone else far more effectively and with fewer consequences than ever. Murder is still not a workable solution. But civil disobedience can be, if we muster sufficient determination and patience.
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