The State of The...

Revolution. It occurred to me the other day that it is possible there might be some misunderstanding of this word revolution. Its two definitions are related, you know. The one I think I am guilty of bending most of my thought toward is the violent upheaval and movement of people: 1917, 1789, 1618, 1776. I think it is precisely because there are more of these revolutions of the people than there are of the sun. In almost any part of the world, at almost any given time, no matter how tiny or internationally insignificant the country, a revolution is being led against the ruling imperialists. I think that if the matter were looked into, there has been a revolution somewhere in the world every year, at least once a year. It’s funny, but there are very few revolutions that happen in the same year. Interesting. Sometimes revolutions LAST for more than a year, but generally speaking there are not more than one in every year. Some years there are no revolutions. I feel like the mean here (in a very Aristotelian sense) is one per year.

Something else happens once a year. The earth revolves around the sun—the celestial nature of revolution. Recently, I have begun to think that the revolution has to be less about movement within the revolutionary track, but movement from the inside out. Our tendency is to think that when we perform some kind of revolutionary act, we are moving things along, but that has a very static definition to me in that evolution is not within the realm of circulation. It is rather more wave-like. We’ll try a couple of things, oh, nope, we’ll take a step back, re-evaluate, try a couple more things, and, BAM!, we got us a keeper. Waves. Not teleology.

And I guess that’s the nut, right there. An unfortunate amount of thought by revolutionaries in the modern age is bent toward the idea that what they are doing, they are doing as a very final form. What this creates is the idea that this revolution means to put itself on an entirely different track from the last regime. Now, the unfortunate problem with this is, of course, that they are wrong. There is only one historical track. It moves around and around, unceasingly. I guess this is where historical dialectical materialism really comes to the fore and lets us know that the reason for its importance lies in the fact that its only purpose is to use the things we cannot change to throw the state of history into an entirely new track: communism.

There is no denying the slightly utopian aspect of communism; however, for those who understand it, sacrifice is actually built right in to the structure, and with the world community working together to make everybody better, it is difficult to say that this is not the ideal. If it were possible, we ought to have it. If it were possible.

I feel I’ve diverted every so slightly…and yet not. At any rate, I’m beginning to think of climate change. When does the earth’s climate change? It changes most drastically when we are nearer or farther from the sun in our revolution. That, generally, creates pretty drastic climate changes for the entire world—the equatorial regions excepted—and produces an extraordinarily wide variety of environmental changes. And good god the variety of storms they produce (I guess that’s a pretty good metaphor for what the mini-revolutions are like: storms of various strengths: April shower, thunderstorm, tropical storm, hurricane, tornado, etc).

What communism is talking about is impossible, and that is unfortunate. It is talking about permanent, variable climate change. How can something be permanent and variable? It has to exist in two states, first of all, like the world and the people on it. The world, for all intents and purposes, is permanent. We could kill the goddamn thing, and it would still continue on its maniacal track around the sun. It would just be a big dead universal weight, but it would continue. And yes, the sun will eventually explode, but it will take far longer for it to happen than anybody can imagine. I mean we can put a number on it, life five billion years, but that means earth is currently halfway through its life expectancy. I guess when the universe gives birth, its offspring have a ten million year life expectancy, and that’s comforting in a lot of ways.

At any rate, this permanent variability and its ability to exist simultaneously in two seemingly contradictory states is the key to communism: it takes history, the present, and the future into all accounts it needs to settle. It would move all the world a permanently variable position one step closer to perfection.

Revolution, therefore, is not movement within the realm of history, but movement outside of history. Being completely unprecedented. There are unprecedented people who have had this revolutionary effect on history. The ideas are permanently ingrained, the state of them are variable. It is kind of problematic in that we have seen how an individual can step outside of history and affect all times (PPF) because we have also seen how it would be beyond impossible that an entire world of people could take the same track. (Camel through the eye of a needle, anyone?) Groups can break the bonds of history, somewhat, but the harsh reality of things is that to move the entire world to a state of mind where everything needs to be done for the good of everybody else is impossible and impractical.

It is rather disheartening to think that the best we can do is throw pebbles at the revolutionary track of history once we’ve stepped outside it, but I guess the goal is to build your strength so that you can throw boulders at it in the hopes that it will create such a block that the flow will be permanently and variably carving new tracks of history. But we do have to step outside in order to aim.

I plan to have an effect on history. I am in the middle of a revolution right now. All my will is bent on breaking the cycle and stepping outside. I guess I’m not even worried about the idea that I am twenty-four years old and have no reason to believe I will be successful in my quest. It is with an eye to the past and an eye to the future while taking the present into account that I make my way through my existence. I am practicing right now. I am working on being permanently variable. I am working on being X: everything and nothing, what you want and what you don’t want, anger inducing and pacifying. I’m practicing for the big games. And every revolution there is a new season, a new opportunity to win the championship, a new opportunity to throw boulders into the ditch carved by inappropriate understood historical revolution.