Bloodless Revolution
I've had some thoughts swirling around in my head about our system of government, or really our election process, and a lot of the commentary on the inauguration today brought them to the forefront. We have a process, a rather remarkable process really, of regularly and orderly shaking up our government. We have elections instead of coups, and most importantly we change our head of state every four years, eight at the outside.
The goal of having this regular shake up was, I think, to avoid the need for bloody violent revolutions. Revolutions are costly, on all kinds of levels. The participants in a revolt (and the bystanders) waste their time and energy on fear and hate and anger. So it is much better to have a system that encourages change and growth without the need for violence.
The flip side of that, though, is that we grow complacent. George Bush was awful. His administration was in many ways a complete nightmare. But instead of getting truly angry, instead of working against him in any real fashion, my strategy was to hold on. It was easier to simply outlast him--telling myself eight years isn't *that* long--than to actually take action against him. If we didn't have that outlet of hope for change every four years, would I have been so complacent? If I couldn't look ahead to today, to this exact date, and know that it would be all be over, would I have done something to make it end anyway? Maybe...I don't know--while I deeply dislike the flagrant trampling of our civil liberties, my life, personally, does not change much with the change of our president. It's hard to get angry enough for a revolution in the abstract...especially when I've got kids to raise.
And perhaps that is the most important point of all. I've got my life to live, and my kids to raise, and I would rather raise them far from any bloody revolutions. Perhaps a little complacency isn't such a high price to pay for a peaceable changing of the guard even if it is on someone else's timetable.
On some NPR show in the past year they had a guest talking about voter participation and how it is rather low in this country, and the person pointed out that in some ways that shows we're doing things right. In other countries you absolutely cannot afford to be ignorant of the issues or the people in power--whether you can vote for them or not, you know who they are and you care deeply about what they do because they have a real and potentially painful effect on your life. To not care about an election is a privilege because it means that the government is of relatively little importance to you, which is rather remarkable all on its own.
So while I may curse my own complacency, my own laziness and lack of motivation to act, even when I feel outraged, I am also aware that I am very lucky to live in a time and a place that allows for such complacency. Now lets just hope that this latest bloodless revolution does enact some real change.
The goal of having this regular shake up was, I think, to avoid the need for bloody violent revolutions. Revolutions are costly, on all kinds of levels. The participants in a revolt (and the bystanders) waste their time and energy on fear and hate and anger. So it is much better to have a system that encourages change and growth without the need for violence.
The flip side of that, though, is that we grow complacent. George Bush was awful. His administration was in many ways a complete nightmare. But instead of getting truly angry, instead of working against him in any real fashion, my strategy was to hold on. It was easier to simply outlast him--telling myself eight years isn't *that* long--than to actually take action against him. If we didn't have that outlet of hope for change every four years, would I have been so complacent? If I couldn't look ahead to today, to this exact date, and know that it would be all be over, would I have done something to make it end anyway? Maybe...I don't know--while I deeply dislike the flagrant trampling of our civil liberties, my life, personally, does not change much with the change of our president. It's hard to get angry enough for a revolution in the abstract...especially when I've got kids to raise.
And perhaps that is the most important point of all. I've got my life to live, and my kids to raise, and I would rather raise them far from any bloody revolutions. Perhaps a little complacency isn't such a high price to pay for a peaceable changing of the guard even if it is on someone else's timetable.
On some NPR show in the past year they had a guest talking about voter participation and how it is rather low in this country, and the person pointed out that in some ways that shows we're doing things right. In other countries you absolutely cannot afford to be ignorant of the issues or the people in power--whether you can vote for them or not, you know who they are and you care deeply about what they do because they have a real and potentially painful effect on your life. To not care about an election is a privilege because it means that the government is of relatively little importance to you, which is rather remarkable all on its own.
So while I may curse my own complacency, my own laziness and lack of motivation to act, even when I feel outraged, I am also aware that I am very lucky to live in a time and a place that allows for such complacency. Now lets just hope that this latest bloodless revolution does enact some real change.