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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 18 July 2012
“The ruling class of any and every time uses the same strategy to stay on top. The words change, but the song remains the same.”
The Revolution Equation
A weariness besets the world. America drifts, Europe crumbles, China slows, markets everywhere are tired and broken. A sort of nervous exhaustion stalks societies, our problems feel bigger than our solutions.
This stagnation is a symptom, the disease is the lack of hope. The cause is intellectual fatigue; the world is dying for the want of a new idea. But this inertia won't last forever. Sooner or later the human spirit will rise and change will come.
Most of human history is drudgery, things are the way they are because they've always been the way they are. The slave, the peasant, the serf, the toiler, the tenant farmer and disposable cubicle drone all submitted to their miserable fate quietly, generation after generation.
We look at the past and wonder how they put up with it. The answer is that they didn't see the possibility of a better way. And their betters made sure they never would.
The ruling class of any and every time uses the same strategy to stay on top. The words change, but the song remains the same: "There is nothing you can do. It's God's will. It's the market's will. Politics and government are useless, they only make things worse."
Fatalism is a philosophy, but more than that, it's a strategy, it's a weapon. Nothing will keep the people quieter, more passive, more bovine, than carefully nurtured cynicism. Discredit the idea of political change and you can rule behind the walls of your castle or your gated community for a thousand years.
Politics is possibility. Politics is ideas, and ideas are dangerous. The survival of any existing power structure is dependent upon the elimination of possibility. In troubled times the ruling classes strive to kill that possibility before it can be born. Their position depends on it.
We live in such a time.
Politics is a dirty word at the moment. That is not an accident. Discredit politics and you neuter democracy. Democracy is the only check on the unlimited powers of brute force and money. Politics is the only way the powerless can join hands and make change.
There is little mystery about what needs to change. Economic inequalities have grown grotesque, environmental exploitation rages unchecked, markets are so out of control even the rich are terrified. But nothing can change, nothing deep and fundamental, until the status quo is confronted by a new idea. Cynicism and despair never change the world, no matter how dark times get.
But let a new idea come into the world, let some Voltaire or Marx or Payne or Keynes write a pamphlet, giving the people a plausible path they can believe in, and watch out. Show them a way and they'll take that way, if they have to tear down the barricades with their bare hands.
The path can be right or wrong, short or long, peaceful or violent. It can lead to Philadelphia or Pol Pot. Where that path takes you is unpredictable. But the triggers of change are highly predictable, they're mathematical.
Revolution happens when the people's political ideas overpower their socioeconomic submissiveness. Then change is inevitable.
Random events happen every day, but some days aren't random. They give us the Magna Carta, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the fall of the Berlin wall, the Arab Spring.
The pressures that led to the burning of the Bastille built over centuries; they burst in a month. The Berlin wall was reviled for thirty years; it fell in a weekend. What made the people revolt after years of submission? Why did they take so long?
Because before then, the people's political expectations were lower than their economic expectations. They didn't see their power, they couldn't imagine a way forward.
And then a street vendor in Tunisia sets himself on fire. It strikes a chord in the people, they gather in forbidden numbers. The penny ante dictators in one fragile society lose their nerve and flee. An example has been set, a new possibility emerges into the public consciousness. Nothing has really changed except where before there was only a blank wall of fatalism and resignation, now there is a road, a possible path to a better future. People see that road and they take it.
That is the revolution equation. When the sum of the people's political expectations exceeds their economic expectations, they are ripe for revolt. It takes only a spark, a Facebook post or a timely tweet. It only takes an idea.
Got one?
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ABOUT Allan Goldstein
Allan Goldstein lives in San Francisco with his wife, Jordan, and a minimum of two cats. His op-ed newspaper column,“Caught off Base,” has appeared in San Francisco’s West Portal Monthly for the past decade. Satire, invective and humor are specialties.
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By Ronnie Cummins
12 comments on "The Revolution Equation"
July 21, 2012 11:50pm
thank you for one of the best articles that i have read in a long time. everything that he said is right, and i have been trying to tell people around me the same thing, although not with beautifully put words in this article. my hat's off to you mr. goldstein.
July 21, 2012 12:44pm
One of the best written pieces. But, breaking is easy, building is hard. Revolutions are usually the start of a messy process that can lead to better times or worse. Unhappiness brings desire for change, but so often it is not change for the better.
July 20, 2012 4:06pm
"Politics is the only way the powerless can join hands and make change." The way our nation is constructed, getting people to join hands is nearly impossible. With different laws in every state, especially those that influence the flow of money, states spend more time fighting each other than holding hands. That's the problem in Europe, too, and that's why the Scandinavian countries want nothing to do with the rest of Europe and why Germany is feeling used.
Greece has about the same size economy of my state of Washington, and it has the same basic problem. The Greek constitution exempts its shipping oligarchs from paying income taxes, which shifts the burden to poor people who have little income and spend most of what they earn.
This is a way to bribe the oligarchs to keep them from moving their floating billboards (ships) to another country. The loss of this "flag-waving" would be a huge blow to Greek pride. Go broke? The European Union's solution is "austerity" and a bailout from Germany.
Washington has no income tax, which lets our billionaires get away with the same scam as the Greek oligarchs. The recommended solution is the same, too. Reduce public spending and kill off the public employee unions.
We have a couple of ethical billionaires, and Nick Hanauer is the one who has the courage to speak truth to power most clearly. Look him up in Wikipedia and watch a youtube video of a speech he made for TED. The only problem is that the other billionaires make so much noise that the masses who need to pay attention can't hear him.
I'm an engineer, and my way to sell an idea is to construct a model and demonstrate that it works. From the time I started to walk and talk, I watched and listened to people who were older than I (i.e., parents, teachers, and even my older sister once in a while) instead of the "coolest kids on the block." All my friends were geeks who played in the band instead of football. I did my homework, made excellent grades, went to college, got two engineering degrees, had two successful careers, and retired at 55. I think the way I was taught to live is a pretty good model, but most people think there is an easier way that's more fun and "cool." They can always blame someone else when something goes wrong, or maybe take a drug that will ease the pain.
As Goldstein says, "Nothing will keep the people quieter, more passive, more bovine, than carefully nurtured cynicism." Amen.
July 19, 2012 3:11am
This was my first post on Nation of Change. The thoughtful comments above have made it a gratifying rookie experience. My sincerest thanks to you all.
July 18, 2012 7:53pm
People need to be pissed off enough to revolt. Americans are not yet pissed off enough, but one day they will. Then the Second American Revolution will happen.
July 18, 2012 4:09pm
Annie Leonard's parallel article, 'The Story of Change', half misses the point in Allan Goldstein's 'The Revolution Equation'. Leonard agrees that we need a big new idea. However - despite her correct complaint that we tend to be effective consumers but not effective citizens - for her the cure, the obvious big new idea, is to get a better ECONOMY (never mind POLITY).
Contra Leonard, Goldstein is quite correct: with or without the economy too, what really must be fixed is politics. In fact there's no hope of getting (or anyhow sustaining) a more dynamic and democratic economy if the polity - i.e. the system whereby public policies are made - remains like the present republican oligarchy (per the 1787 US federal constitution and its copycats). This setup promotes public decisions which are neither democratic nor reasoned. It uses a populist veneer of elections - costly mass popularity contests - but its essence is to concentrate policy-decision power in a small oligarchy of long-term-serving special officers, who are free to make decisions - including decisions to pillage the economy! - in whimsical disregard of scientific canons of reason. [As a result of this setup, Leonard's finding that we are better consumers than citizens is not surprising: the great majority of us - being politically dis-empowered even if we spend gobs of time and energy as 'activists' - have little incentive to work hard at being citizens.]
The solution is to demand a more democratic and deliberative POLITY: de-concentrate and distribute policy decision power to many teams ('juries') of ordinary citizens, and to ensure that their decision-making rules call for due deliberation in accord with scientific-age canons of argument and decision.
As noted in Trish House's comment to Goldstein's article, for a well-functioning ECONOMY we need widespread distribution of inherent economic power, along the lines promoted in another era (in accord with the vision of Jefferson et al) by the US Homestead Act. Land and resource holdings - and the right and duty to manage them sustainably and responsibly - must be de-concentrated. Many modest but adequate parcels can be distributed to great numbers of ordinary citizens and families.
By the same token, for a well-functioning POLITY, political power - the power to make public decisions, and the concomitant duty to make them deliberatively - can and must also be de-concentrated and shared out in modest portions, to many short-term small teams ('juries') of ordinary citizens. [In more detail: for the sake both of due pro-action and due pre-caution, some teams will create proposals, others will decide on proposals, and yet others will review - and confirm or veto - passed proposals.]
Is such 'deliberative direct democracy' our truly needed 'new big idea' (per Leonard)? Does it give us new political expectations to trigger a revolution (per Goldstein)? Well, in any event it is a profoundly meaningful idea that is now reasonable to expect and start demanding within each political jurisdiction.
July 18, 2012 2:54pm
a luminous
world awaits
a dawn
when darkness
is illuminated.
when ignorance
is educated.
when hate
becomes love.
awakening minds when all is One,
something to be dreamed of
everyone, everywhere is One.
a glowing
reality breathes
a thought,
sentient heartbeats.
soaring upward – we see the whole,
knowledge informs.
diving inward – we touch the soul,
light-spirit transforms.
become love… without end… be love… be love…
awakened consciousness when all is One,
something to be dreamed of
everyone, everywhere is One.
across the universe,
suns are born,
stars explode,
light-gods that give everything,
lighting the darkness, awaking the void.
consciousness kisses the lips of creation.
the sun is so beautiful.
July 18, 2012 2:21pm
Got one! We need land reform and an end to hoarding. It must be the birthright of every American to a share of the land and resources they need to make themselves self sustaining. It is a point of national security. It is the basic requirement of a social safety net. It must be inviolate that every American has the right to the means to his own security and survival. Now we have 29+ million Americans that are under or are un employed. There are 78 million retirees; together they make up about 1/3rd of our population, another 25% is children, so combined they are more than 50% of the population. None of these folks significantly contribute to the economy or to the tax revenues that keep this whole mess going. Tim Geitner said in a recent interview that more than 50% of the population depends on government support for their existence. This means that however we structure the economy 45% of the population is required to support 55% of our people. My guess is that as the rewards for their efforts continue to shrink eventually the 45% are going to get tired and will give up. In that case the militarized government will certainly take over and force us to do what they want.
We have to be smart enough to solve these social and economic problems is the way that causes the least harm. That is how the idea of land reform developed. I believe that if the people are secure in their homes and have a mandate to ensure their own food supply as the FIRST priority we will create a stable and unshakable population. We will make our decisions about wars and the rights of corporations and their effects on our environment from a position of safety and strength. I think the wars and environmental destruction will end if we take this course. After all, it is much harder to convince a young person to join the military if they don't need that socialized job source to give them income and education. We are less likely to agree to the creation of products that cause massive destruction to the land we must protect if we are to grow our food and our children. These attitudes are lost when we must beg our existence from the corporate/military/industrial/government complex that draws power and wealth from its position of control over our lives.
If we want a nation of truly free people we will have to mandate that the right to land and natural resources are the commonwealth and birthright of the people. These rights must be inviolate. And from the position of security and power the people can determine what kind of an economy and government will serve them.
Our attention must move to controlling and protecting the people and the resources they need to be self sustaining. If people have no land then viable land must be appropriated by Congress from the hoarded lands of the government and of private corporations and from hoarded, unused lands of private land owners. Ted Turner, for example does not need 2+ million acres while other Americans have no right to the use of any for their own survival. The government holds in trust for us 30% of the land of this country and leases it for $8 - $32 per acre per year to corporations that frack it, destroy water supplies and poison the earth. Yet that same government cannot appropriate land and resources for Americans that have nothing. The terror of facing that option makes Americans ever more desperate to support the corp/military/gov machine. We MUST eliminate that fear for Every American and put them in a postion of power so that they can face their government, the greed and power of corporations and the demands of the military complex and say NO emphatically and with determination that they will not have their way in the destruction of the planet, the terrorizing of other nations to extract their resources, or the bowing of our government to the desires of those with money and power. Empower & Secure The People!
July 18, 2012 1:59pm
when the masses finally awake, or as Goldstein postulates, their political expectations exceed their economic expectations, we must remember to finish the job. No halfway measures. At the core of the current type of oppression that has operated for the last three and a half centuries is the fractional reserve banker's system. Only when this system is rooted out will other reforms be possible. Just think of what will be possible...and end to world hunger, gross poverty, unnecessary disease, and worst of all imperial wars. Capitalism can then be harnessed for real social benefit as opposed to it's present death march for the planet. But remember first things first, the eradication of the fractional reserve banking system and it's monopoly use of money to indebt and enslave everyone and thing with the substitution of a money system that is a benefit to all free from being created as debt.
July 18, 2012 1:53pm
Very true...but lacking an idea, a way forward, I remain cynical. I am all too aware that such a fatalistic attitude does nothing to change the current situation, but I remain at a loss for an idea. I send notes to my elected representatives, I vote at the ballot office and with my pocket book, I commute by bike, eat local, etc etc etc...but my heart tells me these things are of miniscule importance in the face of the gestalt of the problems we have created for ourselves. I long indeed for the day that I can allow myself to hope again.
July 18, 2012 1:31pm
When a rich psychopath can steal more than a country is worth, its time to introduce the psycho's to some justice, even if it has to be home grown.
Time to teach the psychorich how to share.
July 18, 2012 12:02pm
Beautifully written, Mr. Goldstein.
Hope can move the unmoveable. I must
admit I have become one of the hopeless.
Being informed through NOC, Link TV & other
alternative media is a necessity to the formidable
task of staying awake and participating during such
dark times. Your piece reminded me to keep
a light burning. There are so many people awakening
right now. We all need inspiration such as yours. Thank you.