Revolution, Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Revolution, Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

By: Erreh Svaia

Caprine Dispersion

“Those who attempt to level, never equalize.”

Edmund Burke

A mix of political correction, opportunist nationalism and cultural Marxism have led us into believing the almost "sacred" importance of revolution, beginning with Plato and his classic The Republic, the "holy grail" of social movements, revolution, as the idealized upheaval of the poor and oppressed masses against the tyranny of an elite, yes, revolution sounds romantic and idyllic, and of course, it is sometimes started in a sincere way by the masses, who justifiably protest against the order, but as history has shown us many times, it is quickly appropriated by power hungry opportunist, or storm birds, who are quick to seize power and take advantage of turmoil, more commonly a minority waiting to take over and replace the elite in power, basically, a change of master and not the liberation movement it initially promised, in the end the so called “revolution” ending up as a way to concentrate more power instead of making a better distribution of it.

One of my favorite writers, George Orwell said: “Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution, one makes the revolution in order to establish a dictatorship”, Orwell, the writer of 1984 ought to know, as he severely opposed totalitarian states, knowing most of them started with “revolutions”, revolutions almost never end up well, the French Revolution, another prime example of those political and social struggles, followed up by Robespierre and “The Terror”, and ended up with Napoleon dictatorship; The Russian Revolution, started by Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin (based on ideas by Marx, who found inspiration on the French Revolution), it brought a ruthless dictatorship, a totalitarian state, a one party system, the purges, and the gulag; The Mexican revolution, which bought us the seeds of the PRI, a masked up dictatorship by one single party, corporatism (the collusion of union leaders with the government), the creation of monopolies, and the destruction of the countryside, with the so called “agrarian reform”; The Cuban Revolution, a “revolution” to overthrow a dictator, just in order to install another dictator, more purges, more one party system, and one of the longest running dictators ever, Fidel Castro; The Bolivarian Revolution, the one who brought down an oil rich country like Venezuela, the one who impoverished 80% of the population, the one who perpetuated an army dictatorship and demolished democratic opposition, that´s just a part of what revolution have brought us, and some even dare to celebrate it.

Franz Kafka, the famous writer, said it in a more direct way: “Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.”, which is totally true, a ruling elite is dethroned, and replaced by a new one, more paranoid of losing power, it quickly turns into an almost totalitarian state, with the systematic elimination of the opposition and the suppressing of civil rights, as Spanish writer George Santanaya said it wisely: “Those who cannot learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”, but although we are learning form history, it’s not the right version of it, it is a lie told many times, almost becoming the truth for many, no bloody revolution have brought more freedom and a better way of living to a country, the so called Mexican Revolution started as a political and social movement to dethrone dictator Porfirio Diaz, once achieved that goal, a power struggle erupted and the democratic course of our country changed forever, a so called “Revolutionary Party” emerged and assumed power, it ruled in an authoritarian way, it attacked opposition and it rewrote history, so instead of a power struggle between elites, it was seen as an act of freedom and defiance, nothing to celebrate but the end of democracy and the birth of  dictatorial party.

Revolution is not the key to progress, the key is evolution, pragmatism, accountability and responsibility, and it’s not about drama and throwing every advance into the trashcan, it’s about learning well what works and what does not, is about keeping what works and try to make it perfect, and continuously making it better, mistakes must be done, but it’s imprtant detect them and have the capacity to look back, correct it and keep moving forward, always forward, it´s about creating check and balances and an accurate distribution of power, power corrupts, and massive amounts of power corrupts massively, so it’s better to look for an adequate equilibrium, to those waving their Mexican flags “celebrating” the “revolution”, it would be better for them to go beyond their school books and look for the real story, to look for Universal History and find the patterns, that way perhaps we will be able one day to break the cycle, instead of hopelessly repeat it.