The Next Great Political Revolution in the West

'Revolution' is a funny word. For all intents and purposes, it fulfills one request only: as a measure of significance for a country's historicity. 'Historicity' is another funny word: in the pragmatic sense, it deals solely with the facts of history and whether or not they are nonpartisan, objective, verifiable, etc. Essentially, historicity deals with what can be deemed as 'true.'

But then, what's true? Is a revolution just a government's insurrection, or is it a terrorist's ideal? The term 'revolution' is one that should always be taken with two grains of salt, because we must always ask ourselves, whose revolution was it anyway? Did the terrorist become a saint, or did the beneficent leader become a tyrant?

Some believe that we, in this 21st century full of instant communication from anywhere around the world, will have a revolution soon to come in our insulated western world: whether it's working-class over rich, a revolution in democracy, an Islamic revolution, etc. etc. etc. A revolution is only as good as the (inevitably) minority movement that follows through with it and the leaders who give it direction; without one or the other, there is only a small sect of disgruntled citizens, or anarchy.

How can we test where the seeds of 'revolution' might sprout? The most recent revolutions occurred in the Middle East and Northern Africa, where leader after leader either resigned or was deposed from their position of power, demonstrating the power of the people and the prevalence of democracy!

Or so we'd like to think. Egypt has largely turned into a stratocracy, where the former democratically elected power, the Muslim Brotherhood, has been labeled as a terrorist organization by the Egyptian military. Syria is still in the midst of a bloody civil war that shows only stalemate. Libya is still unstable.

Closer to home, with the revelations of NSA spying and the discussions over cutting welfare for millions of people, some say that we require a 'revolution' in order to truly become democratic and egalitarian and what have you. But then, why would there be a revolution in the western world? In terms of peaceful revolution, one can elect a 'radical' to office to change existing structures of government, but in the end, is there any way to completely ensure that this 'radical' will change anything at all? Is 'revolution' for the western world more than just trust in voting?

The last real revolution in politics, specifically in America, came with Ronald Reagan: he cut taxes on both the rich and companies to their lowest levels since the Great Depression (though he raised them as well), cut benefits for many, deregulated portions of the financial and banking industry (see the Savings and Loan crisis), and he removed the solar panels that Jimmy Carter had installed in the White House (not exactly hard-hitting, but symbolic nonetheless). He restarted the Cold War in a way that had everyone once again fearing that their lives could be ended in the next 30 minutes. Some hold him as a mythical Republican hero, some hold him as a right-wing corporatist villain, but either way, he was 'revolutionary.'

(Some would say the Bush administration was revolutionary as well, in the terms of changing how the US comported with the world and how the government acted domestically with regard to the constitution and its citizens. This is true, and should not be taken lightly: everything we see in the international stage today is a result of Bush administration policies, from rendition to wiretapping to Iran to Israel, etc. etc. etc. However, his administration was much more secretive, and the legacy of his administration's impact has yet to fully be assessed.)

Personally, I'd argue that the policies of Reagan and his ilk, such as Thatcher, set western civilization back a few pegs: instead of ensuring wealth for all, it was only wealth for some; instead of maintaining a solid industrial base, it was shipped away to China or Mexico or another country whose standard of work allowed companies to pay workers cents per day.

So then what is the next great revolution in the west? It seems that we've reached our nadir in terms of political activism. After all, it's hard to live in this current society without a 9-to-5, 40 hour a week job that pays just enough for rent and food. It's not as if we can guarantee a higher minimum wage, or a basic salary for all adults between the ages of 18 and 65, or free or subsidized education without the future weight of loans, or an egalitarian tax code, or basic health care for all regardless of income or employment, or paid maternity leave, or paid paternity leave, or an efficient means of public transport throughout the entirety of the US, or the basic necessities of food and water to all, or the reasonable assumption that we can retain the privacy of our opinions within the company of those whom we trust, or that our food, water, and air are clean to eat, drink, and breathe, or that we are reasonably able to provide shelter and accommodation to anyone who may need it. No, we cannot guarantee any of that.

Perhaps when these are enacted, we can say that we lived through the great revolution in the west, or, more specifically, America, because then all will have benefited from the actions of the few, and historicity will deem it so. Fact will no longer be fiction, and the fiction that so many vehemently defend will no longer be fact.

That's all for now, 
Das Flüg

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Happy New Year

 Before the clock strikes 12,
remember to remember your grievances and gripes,
your pitfalls and pains,
your sores and sorrows,
because there will be many more to come.

Before the clock passes 12,
realize where you are,
and where you came from,
because it is not you.
What you are,
what makes you is your smile,
your cheer, the twirl of your hair,
the gleam of joy in your eyes
when you see what makes you happy.

Resolve for nothing but what tickles you,
what pulls you, what drives you,
because there is nothing else that you need.

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If those who impose rules on others cannot abide by those same rules, then the rule-maker has no place making rules. It might seems intuitive, but it most certainly isn't for too many.

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Things I want to do before I'm 30

1. Play a music set in front of an audience and only screw up maybe 2 or 3 times.
2. Publish something.
3. Get another master's, maybe.
4. Climb something big.
5. Start a nonprofit.
6. Get my back fixed. And my left hip. And my knees. And my...
7. Get a black belt. I'm really close, but now I have to find a new dojo...
8. Take a trip anywhere without regard to timing or desire to travel there.
9. Live in a completely foreign place, like in East/South Asia.
10. Learn to swim, finally.

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No, Mr Prime Minister. No.

I was listening to NPR this morning and I heard a snippet about how David Cameron believed that the public was 'on his side' in his desire to renegotiate the British EU treaty, that he wanted to restrict immigrant flow from within the EU (and, of course, from without), and his usual xenophobic rhetoric.

Unsurprising? Definitely. However, this is more than just the usual conservative nonsense; this takes the ire of the press and populace away from the spying infrastructure, with its flimsy arguments for 'national security' and incessant dissemblance, and onto an issue that nationalists and racists everywhere can agree on: that immigrants are bad.

No matter who they are, what their credentials might be, what their economic situation is, immigrants are bad. Except, you know, when the majority of immigrants to the UK are students.

Besides, stopping the flow of migrants to the UK won't precisely help the UK's economic situation, especially with Cameron's rhetoric about renegotiating the entire treaty. The UK has a large enough outflow of citizens and migrants as it is (check the statistics), and besides, if you want to solve a problem that originates from a distant (or not so distant) place, the problem must be solved at its origin, not at its periphery. If you want to stem the tide of immigrants from Romania or Bulgaria, then you encourage them to grow economically and develop a home structure that can support vast swaths of skilled and unskilled workers.

Cameron has always struck me as a man whose sight oversteps his reach. Perhaps he's pandering to the right-wing Tories in his party, or perhaps he's trying to convince himself that his protectionist and overtly illogical bunk is, well, not bunk; or, maybe he just wants to think that Britain is still in a partnership with America that somehow extends its empire and affords it to stand on its own in the international system.

Whatever the case, I hope that most Britons are keen to his style of equivocation and realize just how much of an obdurate, narrow-sighted man he has made himself to be.

That's all for now,
Das Flüg

P.S. I'm trying this social media sharing thing now. I have no idea how it works, but click one of the thingies and something might happen. There might be a free car in it for you, who knows...

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In response to someone asking me, "How was your weekend?"

My weekend was a maelstrom of emotions and incisions into the very nature and fabric of normality, through which I delved into the deepest regions of my being and tore out, with every bloody drop, the center of my heart and threw it upon the ground. It was for this reason that the incisions came to show, came to express the very being which wishes to exude itself from those incisions, deeper than the superficiality they bear. If I could redact it all, pull back the skin of them and expose the seeping ruins of my life upon the world, I wouldn't, for that would only end the long, arduous struggle that is the very essence of consciousness.

How was yours?

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The Taste of Green

While driving, I started thinking about how a blind person might understand a color. Obviously, there isn't a way to say "green is, uh, green!" So, instead, I thought of how a color might feel. Yeah, strange, I know, but strange thoughts make my days of unemployment less dull.

Red is the burn of your skin after being out in the sun for too long, or the uncomfortable thump of your heart after leaning too far back on your chair and nearly falling over.

Orange is the taste of an orange (original, right?), or the tingle of the first autumn breeze.

Yellow is the taste of a banana, or the feeling of springtime sun on a cool day.

Green is bare feet in the grass in the summer, or shade on a summer's day.

Blue is cool water running over your feet on the shore.

Violet is the smell of flowers at first blossom, or the taste of blueberries.

Brown is cool dirt beneath your feet.

I'm guessing black is what most blind people would experience normally. Or maybe they're like Daredevil and have some odd sense of echolocation? Now that would be cool. Blind people, if you're reading this, please tell me. And maybe dress up in a red leather suit and fight crime.

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