I am conducting a revolution. I’m not leading one, because I am not aware of anyone following me. I understand I am influencing a handful of folks, but I’m a revolutionary individual, not a revolutionary leader.
That’s because the foundation of this revolution is individuality.
I know all too well the lessons of leadership, and also it’s limitations. The most important things in this life cannot be led. It works okay for things which require more than one person doing the same thing at the same time, but that’s just mundane mechanics of existence on this plane. It’s the other plane which matters. You could share some of my philosophy, my notions and plans, but you have to do it all on your own. Even when you get support or direct help, it’s still on you. Being utterly and wholly independent in your choices is the whole point; that is the revolution itself. The other word I use often is “sanity” — the only way to be sane is to learn just what is and is not your responsibility, and take hold of that.
So tell me: How is your individual revolution going? That’s the state of the revolution for you.
Meanwhile, I find often in the news tidbits of how this or that person or group is being put through the meat-grinder for this or that political reason. These are folks trying to change the political landscape, inevitably by getting others to go along with their ideas. Power in numbers and all that. And it follows they will always have some grand investment in the trappings of influencing large numbers of people.
Without fail, the ones I read about will have computers, documents, materials for distribution, lists and a significant amount of organization and funding. Such makes them a target for their opponents — burglaries, arrests and confiscation, harassment, confinement, beatings and assassination, etc. Crude, but too often effective. Sometimes it has the opposite effect of making the movement even more viable. Some manage to recover until they succeed.
The death of any revolution is not oppression and repression, but institutionalization. When the revolution becomes mainstream, it is, by definition, no longer a revolution.
Perhaps you know this. If you happen to share something in my revolution, you probably do understand these things. It’s taken for granted. We also know our revolutions — each of us in our own — are not vulnerable to these measures.
I have a couple of computers. The whole point of revolution is not to do what others do, but to experiment and push the envelope. Not for its own sake, but to make sure all options have been tested to see what best meets the needs of the revolution. It’s not a sin to accept some convention, or a lot of conventions; it’s a sin to refuse to examine them. Right now, the needs of my revolution happen to make my computer systems pretty secure from electronic attacks over the Internet wires.
But if someone were to enter my home and put their hands my computers, they could probably get what they wanted from them. What they would get they could easily find online in the first place, except for some boring private stuff. I suppose if you really insisted you had a good reason for prying into my personal rantings in a journal I keep, I would let you read them. It’s not a matter of having things to hide, but they aren’t likely to be of interest to you unless you are wacko and reject my revolution, find it threatening.
So that means maybe some enforcement goons would like to know. That’s fine; all they need do is ask and I’ll send so much of the journal as I have. Even I am not all the interested in what I’ve written, so over the years I’ve lost big chunks of it. Other than those journal entries, all I’ve kept is copies of stuff I published, stuff I found pertinent published by others, and some bits and pieces of entertaining media files freely available to everyone.
Raid my computers? Don’t waste your time. Even if you confiscate all my most important articles, I could probably rewrite them, perhaps even better. I suppose you could slow things down by making me use pencil and paper, since my arthritis makes that challenging after awhile. It might slow down distribution of new ideas and new writings, but it’s too late to remove the stuff already published online. You want a copy of my static website archive? I’ll send you a CD. As long as I’m alive, the revolution continues, and the explanation I have to offer is still in my head.
There’s a strong chance I’ll still face arrest sometime in the future as a direct response to my revolution. I’ve openly counseled resistance, and offered philosophical and theological justification for armed violence by some folks in some cases. Not that I am interested in violence myself, but a central thesis of my teaching is there are two levels of operation, and most of the world is under God’s Laws. Those Laws do encourage well considered bloodshed in certain cases as the best way to prevent even worse bloodshed and injustice. On the spiritual level, we are required to honestly note such things, even as we eschew violence ourselves. It’s not as if there could be no violence justified for me, but it’s highly unlikely. So if they come to arrest me, they aren’t likely to have much trouble, at least not from me.
On the other hand, I openly admit in advance I’m likely to be difficult to find and catch if I suspect it’s coming. That’s the plan, for now, barring a move by the Spirit to choose some other response. He’s in charge of my revolution.
That’s the whole point. He’s in charge, not any of us. We revolutionaries are just the feet and hands on the ground. Insofar as there are any activists, we are it, each of us in our own way. There are no concerted plans, mass movements or rallies. There are no campaigns to influence opinion and politics. There is some effort to endorse change, publicly and even vociferously. But that’s just so folks have no excuse when they face God. It’s more about doing than talking, anyway. So while I offer copies of my version of the message, I discourage folks depending on me for their words. Words aren’t the point. Sanity is the point.
That’s the state of the revolution. It’s your own search for sanity. There aren’t likely that many of us, so we aren’t much of threat in that sense. The likelihood of being specifically targeted is pretty small. More likely we will get in trouble along the way, mistaken by the oppressors as something else entirely. Those who really understand just how much of a threat we constitute are probably too intelligent and important to be in a position to notice us.
Funny, eh?
