revolutionary, ya dig - knowledge is power

So everyone’s talking about a revolution, but what does this revolution look like? Who is involved and what are we revolting against?
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A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turn around") is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Aristotle described two types of political revolution: Complete change from one constitution to another Modification of an existing constitution. Revolutions have occurred through human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating ideology. Their results include major changes in culture, economy, and socio-political institutions.

"Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."
— Mao Zedong

Taken from Wikipedia
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A fundamental change. An important argument to this piece is a discussion about ideology, knowledge, and power. Ideology has operated as a tool of the elite to disseminate certain knowledge as a regime of life. For example, racism. Racism is based on the belief in the existence and significance of racial groups based on difference, but extends into a hierarchy between races to support political or ideological positions of racial supremacy – Whites in power. Thus, these ideas operate as common sense, a kind of truth in fallacy that we live our lives by. More importantly, these ideologies manipulate the minds of the masses as a means to divide and conquer. If you continue to have groups in opposition of one another, then they will never come together and acknowledge a greater power of domination that controls them both. What you will end up with, are groups of individuals fighting over limited resources, that aren’t even theirs for keep.

What is essential to this notion is the relation of knowledge and power within society, operating as a strategic response to articulate difference. Social institutions play a pivotal role in reproducing structured forms of thoughts and domination, especially within racial and class based societies. By creating and making difference seem real through race and class, knowledge works to manipulate the power structure by focusing the attention on outer group relations.
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Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a critical analysis of capitalism and a theory of social change.

Marxism holds that class struggle is the central element of social change.

Taken from Wikipedia
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While I agree to some degree with Marxism, I would go further to argue that until we can battle the struggle of racism, a class struggle will not be the central element to social change. Moreover, it is because we have become trained to recognize our physical differences that we struggle to negotiate our place within society which inherently positions us into certain classes.

So, how will the masses ever revolt against the small number of elite who control most of the world? Well, if we look to the past, we can find some clues to the solution: Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), The Cuban Revolution, and others.
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Ok, so I threw out a lot of ideas in this piece, but I think it is important to flesh out the fulcrum from which ideology and power are developed. It is only ‘til we recognize the structures of power that we can acknowledge the domination they have over our lives. I’ll continue to investigate this issue more. In the mean time, think about the ways the MAN has led you to think about yourself, others, and your place in society!
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