A New Revolution

If you are reading this, understand that this is an outcry to all those capable of speech, writing and any other method of communication to seek an end to violence in OUR world.

I grew up in a city called Troy outside of Detroit, MI. We lived in, at first, a townhouse and then moved to a smaller apartment in the same development. Practically everyone I knew worked for GM or Ford - my friends father, a family friend, worked for Ford and my tutor was a full-time mechanical engineer with Chrysler. And our life was normal, if not extraordinary. Despite what many misconceive and perceive, there was a great deal of multiculturalism, more so than most of the suburbs that I've lived in, namely Princeton Junction in central Jersey, my current residence. Unfortunately, though my parents may consider otherwise, we moved in the summer of '02 to New Jersey as my cardiologist is based in Hackensack. Anyway, as everyone knows, by that time, the glory that was Detroit collapsed. And I was distraught.

But I never understood the reason for our move and for Detroit's collapse, until I 13, when I first read the Marx-Engel's Communist Manifesto. I was deeply dissatisfied, to say the least, at the fact that a few mechanics equipped with a child-like greed - they called ambition - and the ability to make a few tweaks to American designs could destroy hundreds of thousands of lives. And, so, I took up the Socialist pen, something many people have criticized me for, but I'm sure no one can blame me for. I believed that the faults of Capitalism and a "clear" lack of compassion in Washington were the factors that drew up a deteriorating society and, to a level, it is. But, there is more at play. In other words, it is not that Washington does not have a soul or conscience to serve its people, rather that soul just isn't big enough...it is bogged down by a Leviathan-sized obsession, war.

That's right. The socio-economic chaos that our country faced and continues to face is caused by our love affair with warfare, or at least the ways to solve that chaos are unable to pass because of it. And so, I've created a three-part - each equally important and therefore without a hierarchy - to fight such a system: peace by order, peace by reason and peace by all.

First off, I believe that a new sort of Revolution is at hand. Before about 1923 - or at least sometime before the First World War - Revolution was violent. The French Revolutions, the American War for Independence, the Unification of Germany and Italy - to name a few - were all major changes that resulted from violence. However, after the duration of an era - from c. 1923 to 1948 - dubbed the "Era of the Mahatma" named after Mohandas K. Gandhi and his work in South Asia to free it from the clutches of the British - peace-driven Revolution had come to the mainstream. Nevertheless, there was still a certain militantness in this Revolution. There was a hostility that remained between the two forces. Yet, this path was taken by many successors of the movement, such as the American Civil Rights' activist Martin Luther King and the Flower Power and Give Peace a Chance activist John Lennon. Thus, to bring about a impact that will change our status quo successfully, we must take up a new  approach: Peace by Order.

This new type of revolution mustn't be brought from outside the establishment, but within it. This is inspired by two specific examples. For one, despite his following actions, John Lennon seemed to favor this approach over the "traditional" peace-oriented movement. In his "Revolution," Lennon suggests "We all want to change the world/But when you talk about destruction/Don't you know that you can count me out." The key to change is not to scare our politicians and other leaders into following us, but to enlighten them, to explain to them to persuade them. And when that doesn't work, we must taken upon our selves to "create a new government" not a new set of institutions, but rather a new regime with such drastic goals from the previous one that it is by definition, a "new government" all whilst keeping away from violence and militantness. Another example is brought about by a key development in American Civil Rights: the withdrawal of the Plessy precedent through the Supreme Court case Brown v. the Board of Education. The movement for integration was, despite the massive rallies and protests, finally upheld in a court of Law. Though, the actions of Rosa Parks and MLK might have stimulated the sentiment necessary for change, Rosa Parks issue was consummated by a litigation proposal by the NAACP.


The second pillar - peace by reason - is to escape the idealism that had been the most critical fault of the Flower Power movement's brothers and sisters in the '60s. The purpose of this principle is to avoid this ignorance and embrace pragmatism. There are two parts to this condition. One, despite what happened in the '30s and '40s, War cannot improve the economy, anymore. The technical reason for this the rise of service sector ventures that would not be stimulated by war. Second, the belief of this movement should be focused on the use of technology to sustain life, not to destroy it. Unless directly struck, man has no right to kill another man. We got our man, its time to leave. Rationalization should be a key part of our movement.


Lastly, this revolution should not be focused on a single person or class of people or "leaders." Rather, the process by which this revolution take root must incorporate the creation of a non-hierarchical, classless society. This must occur for two reasons. First, the creation of one charismatic leader will not preserve the revolution. Such is the case in India (post-1947, despite the great promise of leaders during English rule, many of the intellectuals were replaced by nationalists and patriots who embrace violence over pacifism) and the Soviet Union, where so much power was given to the Revolutionary leader that the regular people were left in the dark and wronged brutally. Because the United States incorporated this more than the above nations, as in the cleavages wealthy/debtors, southerners/northerners were compensated for, the American Revolution has been more successful than the others. On the same plateau, a legacy cannot rest on one person as man's life is limited. The Satyagraha movement, the non-violent Civil Rights movement and the Give Peace a Chance movement were all examples of how movements have been cut short because of a simple disregard for this simple truth. They were all ended by an assassin's bullet. 


So, on the 20th of May, in coordination with the West Windsor Plainsboro High School North, a seminar will be held by my "Stand for Peace" to further and express this simple plan with a single-issue: peace.