Revolution

Well, I'm a barrel of laughs,
with my carbine on
I keep 'em hoppin',
till my ammunition's gone.
But I'm still not happy,
I feel like
there's something wrong.
I got the revolution blues,
I see bloody fountains,
And ten million dune buggies
comin' down the mountains.
Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon
is full of famous stars,
But I hate them worse than lepers
and I'll kill them
in their cars.

Neil Young – Revolution Blues

Revolution-rev⋅o⋅lu⋅tion
[rev-uh-loo-shuh n]

1) Sociology; a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.

2) an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

Revolution as defined above refers to as “change....often accompanied by violence”. Often, but not always.

Revolution. Catchy, makes me think of The White Album.

Exteme? I don’t know. Anarchy? I don’t know. Civil War? I don’t know. Revolution? I think so. Revolution can be defined in a number of ways. In 1994 we had the “Republican Revolution” in the “Contract With America”. We had the “Fall of the Berlin Wall” in 1989 which can be described as a “peaceful” revolution. Karl Marx advocated peaceful and complete transition. Of course, he was an idealist where history has shown that his theory of government would never work. The remnants of the Soviet Union showed the world that a nearly bloodless transformation was possible, as well as satellite countries in Eastern Europe.

As we take a journey through history, we make a stop in the Dark Continent. African revolutions are typically accompanied by genocide, as Congo, Rwanda, and the Sudan can attest. On the other side of the world, Latin America is an analog to Africa with Communist Sandinistas, Shining Path Maoists, etc. While it may be true that during the 19th and early 20th century, some of these conflicts were to gain independence from European colonial rule, many were internal coups to establish new and better ruling juntas, year after year after year.

“You say you want a revolution, well, you know....”

King George III of England didn’t care much for the independent nature of the American colonies. His predecessors, I and II, allowed the British Parliament to govern the Empire, and were largely symbolic Monarchs. George the Third was young, not very bright, and took his mother’s advice to be a “King”. The timing was good because the ruling Whigs were losing favor with the “people”, and the Tories were gaining power within Parliament. King George III exerted and expanded his power base to the American colonies through various ministries. Making an example of his “bastard children”, he imposed taxes, tariffs, and general abuses on the colonials that could not be redressed due to lack of representation. The Second Continental Congress attempted reconciliation after the first shots were fired at Lexington, but the king rejected the offer. Any notion of a peaceful resolution to address the grievances were no longer a possibility.

“You tell me that it’s evolution, well, you know.....”

The Continental Army lost an estimated 25,000 soldiers, mostly from disease. These farmers and mechanics, and artisans confronted the world’s most powerful military machine of the time, and with a little luck and a whole lot of desire, forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

What this brief history lesson really means is that these men laid it all on the line; their “.....lives, fortunes, and sacred honor....” so that we could experience the birth of a nation. That effort has become a mockery at best, as the blood and toil of the Patriots and Sons of Liberty have been forgotten and blemished by a Federal government that is a bloated corpse, or as Benjamin Franklin so eloquently put it, “... a dead Mackerel in the street that shines in the moonlight, but stinks as you get close enough to smell it..”. I paraphrase here, but the point is clear.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson

Whether this quote is figurative or literal in the contemporary context, its meaning requires no explanation. The Sons of Liberty must be revived with clear direction and purpose, to reclaim our country and to take it back from a central power whose time has come and gone. We must return to the premise as written on July 4th, 1776, that is to “govern by the consent of the governed”. Which model of revolution do we adopt? Peaceful or something else? It is no longer a question of if, but when. I prefer the ballot box, unless that is no longer an option.

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately"-Benjamin Franklin