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February 24, 2005
Therefore Alternatives: What about Revolutions
In this mutli-part series, Sanat Mohanty discusses why we have to look for alternatives and what kinds of alternatives we should look for. This eighth piece of the series presents the problems with revolutions. Part I: What is the point of this discussion?
It is thus important to first recognize that there are inherent problems with the structure of our society today. Only then will we look for alternatives. In understanding the problems with the structure, we will be in a better position to evolve alternatives that are less oppressive. And in trying out alternatives we will have a better idea of what works and what does not. In asking whether we will have a change, it is also important to ask who will envision that change, who will lead that change and who must follow. For if I argue that I have had a vision and I know I am right and irrespective of what others think, I and a band of my friends will force such a change since it is right (as the world will eventually come to realize), then such a change will itself be violent. As Gandhi said, it is irrelevant to the widow or to the orphan whether violence was perpetrated to fight fascism or to establish high ideals of equality and justice. Yes, we need change, we need another world, alternative forms of society. However, we need to find ways in which people are empowered to make choices and form decisions about what those alternatives might be. We need processes whereby people are able to influence the process of change through their experiences and understanding. In effect, we need to empower means of change. That is the ideal of a democracy and of a non-violent society that transcends fundamentalism. It is a revolution that recognizes that people evolve, and must continue to evolve as we understand ourselves and our world better, and as we evolve, our understanding of alternatives will also change. This revolution is thus not to establish one alternative – one end – that we know will be the greatest but to commit to a means that ensures that we will continue to treat ourselves and our co-inhabitants with greater understanding of our identities. Posted by collective at February 24, 2005 05:47 PMComments
"In effect, we need to empower means of change." "However, we need to find ways in which people are empowered to make choices and form decisions about what those alternatives might be." some ramblings- >>Non-violence, or rather non-injury is a powerful religious ethic which Gandhi amazingly placed as a political ethic. Democracy roots itself in ethics of individual rights and equality, not necessarily non-violence. But it is amazing on how it has become a means of seemingly / comparatively 'non-violent' political change. For democracy to be better effective, a conciousness of power,rights and equality needs to be engendered. A counter-balance to the intoxication of power needs to be a sensitivity and empathy to those existences beyond the identity boundaries of power. The question in intentional societal empowerment, is how can the counter-balance also be engendered. In the absence of such a counter-balance, we rely on Nature to provide the corrections. Its systemic and temporal cycles for power, arrogance and fall, and particularly for things of (larger) scale are more potent than anything our minds can concoct. on a tangent ... The limits of one expression, seem to be bounds of the expression of the other. In this competition of entities and identities, there seem to be naturally limiting and symbiotic systems in place. Non-injury in this context is very interesting, as it is a concious restraint, keeping back an organic instinct towards self-propagation, expression and possibly violence. It shifts conciousness into a different mode. >>Non-injury, by its own nature of movement, is a movement which restrains, which goes against expansion. It is a contractive movement. And the opposite movement along that spectrum seem compassion, nurture, nourishment, empathy, kindness,.... These seem to be outward movements. Out of this vortex, there is a lateral emergence, a vector denoting a different flavour of power to act, to exist. totally on tangent ....:) "In effect, we need to empower means of change." Post a comment
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