Action, that's not so easy, revolutions are ugly and often colored red with the blood of martyrs. Add to that the fact that never in history have the entitled ever given up their position voluntarily and the billions of 'consumers' who vote with their consumption every day to support it and who would start shooting if the malls closed.
The Rolls Royce Revolutionaries, and their sympathizers, like me, are usually a hopeful but sorry lot. Not just because we're so badly outnumbered and severely out gunned but because as westerners our lives are supported by the same framework that supports the rich [both revolutionary few and reactionary many].
George Orwell said, "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." Framed that way just the speaking of the truth is laudable. And, knowing that, as Voltaire said, "It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.", it's also commendable that despite the fact that the first lesson for new revolutionists is learning to 'duck', they've used the 'R' word.
Celebrities advocating 'Celebricide'? makes a person wonder though. Are the same 'ol powers just using the emotional energy in our angst to sell us the crap in the ads they're running beside the revolutionary articles? Is The New Statesman trying to boost it's market share so they can charge the advertisers more? Are the well paid Rolls Royce Revolutionary writers themselves living lives of comfort with lavish digs and jet set lives paid for by the ads?
Even turning down the burners far enough to slow down our spiralling slide into environmental suicide would 'cost' $o many $o much with the the only way to avoid it seeming to be a worldwide financial collapse before it happens. Revolution would be way uglier, way redder, that's why i root for financial collapse to come riding in before the four horsemen do.
Richard Wilber said long ago, "We milk the cow of the world, and as we do We whisper in her ear, 'You are not true.'" Wilber saw that we were attempting unsuccessfully to distance ourselves from the natural world. Since Wilber's time the consumers have consumed all the milk and are now eating the cow. Humans could survive without extractive capitalism, without industrial agriculture, without interest [the worst sin of all] but we and many other species can't survive with them for much longer.
'Celebricide' may be fashionable but revolution starts the bottom, from the mud. When Brand, Hedges and Klein give away their fortunes to the needy and live the lives their present advocacy of revolution would lead to if adopted i'll listen, maybe go help 'em weed or something, until then, they'll keep livin the high life and i'll keep livin my life high.
