A Revolution of Resistance
If you are a revolutionary, you might not like this and if you are not a revolutionary, I wish you become one. Revolutions are not a simple thing. There are entire university courses dedicated to the topic of revolutions. I lived through one and I recall seeing tracers at night and hearing the sporadic sound of AK-47s. Tanks rolling down the street … it felt good but for many people it did not: countless people died. Lives were the cost for that Revolution and forty-five years of suffering on the part of millions of people were the cause of it.
I do not think bloody revolutions are necessary. We have seen President Mubarak of Egypt, dismissed by the people of Egypt after decades in power, all in a more or less violent-less revolution. The army did not wash-out the streets of blood during the night like it did in Romania, or like in Syria now. The Egyptian people went out on the streets, shut-down the capital just by their sheer numbers and kept it that way. Masses of people have such power – that is how it always is, just many people do not know it. They look at themselves in the mirror, see one person and think that they cannot do much. You can always count on me and I am not alone either – there are many like me: ready to walk the walk at any time, whenever needed.
I do believe North America is in a need for change. No, not the change Mr. Obama talked about. That was the change from oil oligarchs owning the government to Wall St. bankers owning the government – not much of a change in my opinion. The majority of citizens are still screwed (excuse the expression but I see it fitting).
A significant revolution in United States will take place during my life-time. If people pick-up arms though … the continent will wash-out in blood and this is no exaggeration yet, now I see a significant awakening in the Spirit of many Americans; I am grateful for that and it is important. Resistance does not necessarily mean making road-side bombs or being a suicide bomber, although that is one form of resistance.
I resist from buying garbage made in China. I resist from eating McNasty. I resist from being greedy, narcissistic, ignorant and lazy. I resist from buying-in to the consumerist mentality and from buying products made by children working in sweat shops in South-east Asia … resistance can happen in many ways; just like revolutions do not need guns, resistance does not necessarily mean violence. It may be needed but it is not critical or a pre-requisite. Gandhi knew what he was saying. (I do not know what he was really saying because I never read anything that he wrote but I know he was right.)
The best type of revolution I think happens in our minds. When we revolutionize our thinking then, we revolutionize the world. It is that simple. Revolutions start with the individual, they require many people to act as one in the end but they require each of us to do our little part in the beginning.
Each day is a new beginning and the revolution needs you. This is a revolution of resistance. One in which we cannot walk the same road as the generations before us. There is too much at stake. Too much time has passed walking down the the road of greed, consumption, selfishness, decay, corruption and violence. Unless, we stand united against calamity, we may be facing our self-defeat. That would be our own dispute though, as Damian Marley would say.
We can have a revolution by dancing! Do we still know how to dance?
