- 01 May 2011 15:52
#13697874
I'm prompted by this thread. It was a great read, and while I'm not keen to rekindle the ugly tone of that debate, it brought to mind Koestler's explanation of the difference between a rebel and a revolutionary.
A rebel is romantic and emotional whilst a revolutionary is calculating and cold, willing to completely subsume his will to the cause, while a rebel dances around with a megaphone.[1]
We've seen plenty of rebels recently here in the UK at the royal wedding protests and the anti cuts demos. It's all keffiyahs, megaphones and supplication. Asking the state to reverse cuts that will happen, asking the state to make vodafone pay its tax, asking the public to stop being overweight, self indulgent and passive.
If there is still a left where people believe it's absurd that people die of malnutrition and cheaply treatable illnesses, whilst the rest of us withdraw to individualism and spend all our money on ipads - where are the revolutionaries among the rebels?
Where are the revolutionaries climbing the corporate ladder? Unfashionably donning suits and studying finance, delaying self gratitude for the sake of a plan. I don't mean in order to become Buffett-Gates stlye philanthropists, but in order to climb right into the locus of global power, in the same way that twentieth century revolutionaries targetted the state, when it was the locus of power.
Is it that people with empathy dont have the patience to be anything other than rebels, and will continue to focus on the state and rallying the opinions of a docile western public - who let's not forget are the exploitative global class?
__________________________________________
[1]Paraphrased from Arrow in the Blue, couldn't find the quote on google
A rebel is romantic and emotional whilst a revolutionary is calculating and cold, willing to completely subsume his will to the cause, while a rebel dances around with a megaphone.[1]
We've seen plenty of rebels recently here in the UK at the royal wedding protests and the anti cuts demos. It's all keffiyahs, megaphones and supplication. Asking the state to reverse cuts that will happen, asking the state to make vodafone pay its tax, asking the public to stop being overweight, self indulgent and passive.
If there is still a left where people believe it's absurd that people die of malnutrition and cheaply treatable illnesses, whilst the rest of us withdraw to individualism and spend all our money on ipads - where are the revolutionaries among the rebels?
Where are the revolutionaries climbing the corporate ladder? Unfashionably donning suits and studying finance, delaying self gratitude for the sake of a plan. I don't mean in order to become Buffett-Gates stlye philanthropists, but in order to climb right into the locus of global power, in the same way that twentieth century revolutionaries targetted the state, when it was the locus of power.
Is it that people with empathy dont have the patience to be anything other than rebels, and will continue to focus on the state and rallying the opinions of a docile western public - who let's not forget are the exploitative global class?
__________________________________________
[1]Paraphrased from Arrow in the Blue, couldn't find the quote on google