IT’S HAPPENED AGAIN: REVOLUTION

Written by

And so, another government and another president are removed from office in a revolution, this time (again) in Egypt. (I wonder if anyone in the U.S. sees the irony of this news first making headlines during the time that Americans were once again celebrating their own revolution — the Fourth of July weekend.)

In the book The Storm Before the Calm, published two years ago, I wrote of the human experience of revolution — and called for a new kind of revolution. Here is some of what I had to say there:

A search on Wikipedia under the word “revolutions” brings up a virtually endless catalogue of uprisings, beginning with the popular revolt in the Sumarian city of Lagash that deposed King Lugalanda and put the reformer Urukagina on the throne in 2380 B.C., ending with the revolutions that overturned governments in the Arab world in 2011.

Let me just give you part of this list, just to take a quick look at how people have been responding on this planet to how they’ve been governed…

We have seen literally hundreds of uprisings and revolutions across our history, including the Fall of the Roman Empire, the First of the Wars of Scottish Independence, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the revolution in India, the Boer Revolt, revolutions all over South America, the European Revolutions of 1848, the revolutions in modern Hungary, in Yugoslavia, in Haiti, the dissolution of the Soviet Union by 1991…

…take my word for it. This is a tiny portion of a list that goes on and on and on…and ON. We’ve been “revolting” since the beginning of our gathering together in clans and tribes and then, nations.

What is this all about, do you think?

What do you imagine has been causing all of this? Why do you think it never ends? And what do you think could make it end?

I can tell you what it’s about. And I can also tell you how to make it end, with one Final Revolution. Indeed, that’s what the Storm Before The Calm is all about. What has bee causing all of this for so long is that…

Human beings have been clear for a very long time that the way those in power have constructed life on this planet is not the way it was intended to be lived.

And so, since forever—for centuries and millennia—people on every spot on the globe have been agitating. They’ve wanted a new way of life—a new way of being human; a way that they know it was intended for them to be human.

Their agitations have continued right up to this present day. Even as this is being written, people in many places on earth are still saying No! to the way things are, and are demanding change. They’re prepared to die for it. They have been dying for it. They’re dying right now, as you’re reading this.

But we are ready now, as a global community, for that dying to stop. We’ve had it. We’re done. There’s got to be a better way. We wonder, why don’t those who seek to govern us get it? But they don’t, so now we’re seeing what I have been calling here the Overhaul of Humanity. This is a revolution that will not ask people to die, but will simply ask people to inquire. It will invite people to make inquiries of themselves and others that could change everything in such a huge way that, finally, future violent revolutions may never again be necessary.

Comments

23 responses to “IT’S HAPPENED AGAIN: REVOLUTION”

July 4, 2013

politics

A just and simple question could in fact be a rather simple one, but may come with many interpretations. Remember, any answers are extremely relevant to this particular topic of Revolution.

What do you suppose Life have in mind when the intention was to Live, but then had to make Laws for the greater good, was it for the benefit of Us or Life in general? Careful…

Reply
July 4, 2013

Christopher Toft

Yes I agree with you Neale. Revolutions happen because human beings as a species have not yet figured out how to create a society that is in your words “functional”. Our politics is ludicrously polarised(not just in America) & we all assume either/or regarding issues of how we govern ourselves. The fundamental problem is as always, we do not understand who we are & what life is about.

Reply
July 4, 2013

John Sapp

One of the prime factors that cause revolution is frustration at how things appear. It also seems that governments have a fear of their very own people they govern. The more dialogue that can be developed by All people on this planet, I believe, will continue to create better relationships and understanding of our true self.

Reply
July 4, 2013

mewabe

As long as we behave like monkeys, we will have a need for violent revolutions. Societies will keep being governed by the law of the survival of the fittest, and everything will still depend on predation, exploitation and the oppression of the so-called weak (the less aggressive).

Leaders will follow these same rules, and side with the “strong” or forceful (the dominant, aggressive and predatory, such as big industry) against the “weak” (the less aggressive, less predatory or less successful at predation, such as minorities or the public in general).

So the question is, how long will we keep behaving like monkeys? How long will we value dominant power over love and life? How long will we choose to live under the patriarchy and admire its forceful, abusive, authoritarian ways?

As long as we think fear has more power than love.

Until we change, I am all for PERMANENT REVOLUTION, not through any kind of violence, but by living completely outside of the dominant paradigm…REVOLUTION AS A WAY OF BEING…since any truth is revolutionary when the dominant paradigm is a massive delusion.

Reply
1. July 4, 2013
  
  Sherry
  
  I agree,whole heartedly,dominance is a sign of weakness..Love and respect bring freedom and peace not power struggles, war or control.
  
  Reply
  1. July 4, 2013
    
    mewabe
    
    Thank you Sherry….
    Women and men need to join forces and to reassert, manifest, together as one voice in balance and complementarity, the power of love, not just in relationships but in all human endeavors, in all we think and do as a specie.
    I totally agree, there will never be any real freedom (or peace) without love. Love IS the revolution, there is no other!
    
    Reply
July 5, 2013

Erin

Wow…just in our short span in this Lifetime…How Our globe has changed…IS changing!

If only people would realize that if they stopped for just a moment…invested a moment of their time in their Self…re-evaluated their personal living experience according to the guideline messages of the many messengers…there would be no need to ‘re-volt’…the energies of even one would add to the One with full charge.

It would be Love-ly to See wisdom grow as mightier than Our technologies…of This I remain hope-full…of This I know we will ‘finally’ See what We are…and All will adjust accordingly.
Blessings to All in their moment. 🙂

Reply
1. July 5, 2013
  
  mewabe
  
  Erin, I just want to add to your comment.
  
  Yes, some messengers’ messages can help people return to their own self and soul. But in my opinion, the only guidelines that should ultimately be followed are that of your OWN soul, not of anyone else, because although we are all one and one with everything, we are all unique, all different, and all have a unique path and a unique voice.
  
  When you follow the guidelines of another, or of several others, you have religion. When you follow the guidelines of your own soul, you have spirituality. There is a difference as we all know.
  
  Reply
  1. July 5, 2013
    
    Marko
    
    “When you follow the guidelines of another, or of several others, you have religion.”
    
    Not necessarily, you can simply have agreement of guidelines. No religion needed.
    
    My guess Mewabe is that religion will eventually become more like spirituality & spirituality will become more the norm with more collective consensus & agreement on how life is best lived, though in many various forms but without the dogma & rigidity.
    
    The difference in religion as I see it & spirituality is: religion relies on a outside source be it the church or it’s teachings & spirituality relies on the individual as the source of what one believes.
    
    Magically,
    -M
    
    Reply
    1. July 5, 2013
      
      mewabe
      
      Yes, and yet when you invest another person’s teachings with authority, when you essentially state that another person has the answers your mind was seeking, and when you agree collectively on a certain worldview, you no longer rely on yourself (your soul) as the source of your knowledge, but as the source of what you choose to follow. Your power is reduced to choosing between outside sources, rather than listening to your inner voice (soul).
      
      My own definition of spiritual growth does not include following another as a source of my own knowledge. To do so is in my view the beginning of religion.
      
      I can state that I agree or disagree with someone, or both, but I cannot follow, because to do so would be spiritual self-betrayal, it would be to manifest the strange idea that I am lost and needs not the guidance of my own soul/spirit/divine connection, but that of an intercessor, of a person whom I would believe, strangely again, that s/he is has the inside track to God while I don’t.
      
      And this, in my opinion, is EXACTLY what religion is about..
      
      Reply
  2. July 6, 2013
    
    Christopher Toft
    
    This is what I love about Carl Roger’s form of counselling, the therapist directs the client to their own wisdom surrounding the personal issues they bring to the session.
    
    Reply
    1. July 6, 2013
      
      mewabe
      
      Exactly, and this is what all real therapists or counselors do…they never tell someone how or what to feel, or what to do, they simply help the patient find his/her own answers from deep within. That’s how a person really heals, from actual INSIGHTS.
      
      This is what all spiritual teachers must do if they really want to free and empower people. But if they want to make themselves indispensable, if they want to hold on to their status as permanent teachers who create a mass of dependent students, then they do the opposite: they give answers and do not let the student discover his or her own inner wisdom.
      
      That’s when you have the absurd situation of people asking such a teacher…”what should I FEEL and THINK about this topic? Please tell me how to live my life, how to be, what to think and feel, because I am incapable”.
      
      And the “teachers” feed on this as they relish the feeling of being so needed, and so worshipped.
      
      Being a follower seems to be a huge part of the social conditioning of humanity. People look for answers in all the wrong places (outside of themselves), and are always so ready and willing to surrender their power to a person they perceive to be above them.
      
      This human condition has always baffled me, I have never understood it and never will (except that I suspect that it expresses a psychological need for a parent).
      
      Reply
July 6, 2013

Rebecca Twiss

I find it fascinating how closely the larger works of human beings reflect the inner workings of the self. Internally, and externally, we are caught in the cycle of trying to fix things. But we get caught up in the ego, because it is the reality we know. Working hard at changing things, but the change needs to come from letting go of the world we are familiar with, without knowing exactly what comes next. Its one of those transitions that look so much harder from this side of it 🙂 But I am sure that once it is done, we will be able to look back and say Wow! Not in judgment (what took us so long!) but in compassion, understanding, and love. Because at that point, there will be no judgment, no blame, no finger pointing, and no one to fight.
Today I stand with one foot in both worlds. I don’t know why – its just where I am supposed to be…calmly waiting for the tipping point. Good luck to us all.

Reply
1. July 6, 2013
  
  politics
  
  Very well put Rebecca Twiss.
  
  Reply
July 6, 2013

Hans Hansen

I always come back to the same thing: magnify YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS, and if possible help others to do the same.
One revolt is always fertile ground for the next revolt, but the raising of human consciousness will prevent revolution, but will slowly change the world for a better place to live for everyone.
Today I am 80 years old, and since World War II participated in many Discussions, and many proposals have been on the table, but none have surpassed the benefit of higher human consciousness.
We are on the way. There have never been so many aid organizations, as there is today.
People of good will and high awareness gaining ground.
Birth of the new time takes time and is sometimes a little painful.
I am full of hope.

Reply
July 6, 2013

mewabe

Let’s get to the heart of the matter:

There will be rebellions, revolts, revolutions as long as we believe we need to use authority and coercion to keep “order” in our societies, a condition that reveals a very primitive state of consciousness and a very negative perception of human nature.

Ironically, the Native American tribes that were considered the most “primitive” by Euro-Americans were the ones who did not use authority or coercion, the ones whose “chiefs” were merely advisers and only relied on their oratory eloquence to make their point. This non-hierarchical social structure was considered “primitive” because the world belief system, specifically of the “civilized” kind, is totally, completely, utterly upside down, and has been for centuries.

Let’s keep it simple: if God herself does not use authority and coercion over us, who among us is qualified and has the right to do so? NONE. All authority and power over others is, intrinsically, abuse and spiritual transgression, no matter how seemingly benevolent. Revolts, revolutions, rebellions will never cease until this simple fact is FINALLY understood.

Reply
July 7, 2013

Victor

I remember a statement from Conversations with God, book 2:

“Revolutions, and civil wars are inevitable, as wars between nations, as long as those who “have” keep exploiting those who “have not”, under the disguise of being offering them ´opportunities´…” (translation from spanish)

Of course this is more disguised with these kind of pretexts: “those who have not are in such situation for their own fault”…

But the question here is: who decides that somebody has or has not anything, including the very same things for survival: food, shelter, care, health, etc…? The answer: any power outside…

And when people anyway do what “those in power” say it has to be done for surviving, or for living with some dignity, and yet find themselves in the same or worst situation, you can bet there will be some kind of revolution, peaceful, or unpeaceful.

So, the next question is: why any other power away of oneself can decide even if I eat or not, if I drink clean water or not, if I can study, work, dream or not…?

Even more ´simple´questions: why do I have to “work for living”? Why do I have to work for eating? Why do I have to earn money if I just want to eat and maintain my body alive? Who constructed life in this way? God? Nature?

So, when we start to think in such things, we start to find that we must challenge many -a huge quantity!- beliefs and assumptions about very basic aspects of human living in this world. In other words: Revolution. In awareness.

This is part of the Revolution that is arising everywhere.

Yes! Welcome Awareness and Consciousness Revolutions…!

Reply
1. July 7, 2013
  
  mewabe
  
  I agree Victor, if we want to end voluntary and involuntary slavery, we need to question absolutely everything. And that’s permanent revolution, because in our world, even simple non violent actions directed at reclaiming authenticity and freedom are revolutionary.
  
  There is a war waged with words…an constant offensive by the “system” that uses words as weapons of conditioning. This becomes very obvious once you decondition yourself. So to begin with, we need to become conscious of this conditioning, of these words and the concepts they imply, the emotional triggers they use, the artificial needs they create, all based on guilt, fear, shame and a desire for instant gratification or relief from the misery of daily living (which means consumption, buying stuff to forget that one’s life essentially sucks).
  
  As part of conditioning and as an example, poverty is perceived to be a disease in the US, and contagious, which is why most of the public dares not look at the homeless. But US living standards are fundamentally insane, leading to the destruction of ecosystems through resources extraction and exhaustion and an unsustainable output of trash and industrial-chemical waste.
  
  When a standard of living is fundamentally irrational, what can we expect to be rational in a given society and within the mind of the people who live in it? Everything is about as rational as would be a mental asylum run by the patients.
  
  Reply
July 8, 2013

Mike Brown

“If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.”
Emma Goldman

“Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.”
Anaïs Nin

“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
Aristotle

Reply
July 8, 2013

Mike Brown

forgot this one :

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can
only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”
Ursula K. Le Guin,

The Dispossessed

Reply
1. July 8, 2013
  
  mewabe
  
  Found on Ursula K. Le Guin’s website:
  
  “The truth is we discriminate against women in society in this state and in this country, and it is pervasive, and we haven’t admitted it, and it goes on every day, and it’s a shame, and it’s wrong, and it’s immoral, and it’s unethical, and it has to stop, and it’s going to stop in the state of New York, and then it’s going to
  stop everywhere.”
  
  Andrew M. Cuomo
  
  New York governor
  June 6, 2013
  
  As long as we live under the patriarchy, that is to say in imbalanced, hierarchical, pyramidal social structures that emphasize dominant power and authority, there will be major prejudices against women and all pretenses at “revolution” will be a cruel joke. Even the American or French revolutions did not take women into account.
  
  One has to question the concept of evolution, for all we really need to do is once again honor our fundamental human nature as well as all natural life. It does not seem to be that complicated a goal, but it is for people and societies that are so far off balance and alienated from reality they can no longer tell what is up or down.
  
  Reply
July 9, 2013

Awareness

“You have nothing to learn, you have only to remember.” – Conversations with God 🙂

Reply
July 9, 2013

Terri Lynn

I believe that we are ready. I am ready.

Reply