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You Say You Want a Revolution
I’ve seen this 1787 quote from Thomas Jefferson a lot over the years from those dissatisfied with the political landscape of the time:
A little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
“Rebellion” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “violent revolution”. It could mean opposing those in power, or fighting against orthodoxy, or even civil disobedience. Those things are healthy actions in a democracy. With Jefferson though, given his other writings, “rebellion” probably meant violence:
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
The latter quote is also prevalent. I’m going to be blunt about this. If you, as an American in 2012, quote this with any degree of sincerity, you’re callous and immature. There was a time in America when these two statements may have been reasonable. During the time of the American Revolution Americans were not given adequate control of their country by the British. At times in our history blacks were slaves or second class citizens suffering from state sanctioned violence. Native Americans and Mormons were pushed across the country. There are probably countless other examples of groups of people being oppressed by any level of government in America. “Violent revolution” was understandable in 1776. It would have been understandable had there been a major slave revolt before 1861. It probably would have been in many other cases of oppression as well (which is why the nonviolence of Martin Luther King was so worthy of praise).

This is not the case anymore. There are certainly still injustices in America, but America now affords you the opportunity to affect change. Notice I did not say it would be easy. In fact, given the role money plays in politics it is certainly not easy. But neither is violent revolution. Thomas Jefferson lived in a very different world than you or I. Talk of violent revolution made sense then. Really all it does now is help someone who feels angry and powerless, feel like they can do something. That’s the immaturity part of it. Just because this country is not following your preferred path does not make it acceptable to start throwing “revolution” around.

The callous part of it is the idea that it would be a good thing to have a revolution every generation, as Jefferson spoke of. Sending young men and women out to fight and die every twenty years is incredibly destructive and wasteful, especially given it would happen in your own country. Every time I hear of a soldier dying in Iraq I think about what our country has lost in terms of human potential. It disrupts our communities and families. It wastes a person willing to die for his country. War may be necessary sometimes, but it is a terrible thing. And that’s just when we’re fighting it thousands of miles away. Ask Iraqis and Afghanis and Sudanese and Congolese what it’s done to their country. What have these countries lost in terms of economic growth or infrastructure or a sense of security or child development in years of war?

I’m not saying anything profound. In fact, the problem I’m addressing is not all that serious because, as I said earlier, this talk is mostly posturing. At its worst it does incite violence, but mostly it is an attempt to intimidate people in debate. I’m just kind of sick of seeing people popping off in Facebook status updates about “revolution”. It’s lazy and ignorant.
 
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