Stepping stones of a Revolution

Rebellion has played its part in my life when I was a kid and occasionally now. I remember when I was still young; I would never listen to my grandparents, parents, or any other older relative. They would give me a command, and expect me to do it. I guess I just wanted to be different from all of the other kids, but I never did anything they wanted me to. In the end, I was forced to do it anyways because I didn’t want to get yelled at or whipped.

The readings that were assigned and the film that was shown to us really sparked my interest about rebellions. If I didn’t see the movie or read about the rebellions, I would have thought that the people who were rebelling against an established nation were stupid. There was one essay that really had me thinking about rebellion and suicide. The essay is called “Revolutionary Suicide” and it was written by Huey P. Newton.

After reading it, I learned a lot of new factors about suicide. For example, in the essay, Newton says, “He maintains that the primary cause of suicide is not individual temperament but forces in the social environment. In other words, suicide is caused primarily by external factors, not internal ones.” I always thought that suicide was caused by your internal motions. Newton also listed some external factors about what caused the black Americans to have a higher suicide rate than whites.

The information that Newton got about black Americans was from Dr. Herbert Hendin. Hendin’s study of black young men were all deprived of dignity, crushed by oppressive forces, and denied their right to live as free human beings. Due to all of these external factors, the black men were overwhelmed and condemned to helplessness which left them no choice but to die. He includes another example that compares a beggar to a very poor man.

He tells us that beggars are totally demeaned and immobilized by fear and despair that leads them to self-murder. Newton gives two types of suicide. One is called reactionary suicide and the other one is called revolutionary suicide. Reactionary suicide is what the beggar went through and revolutionary suicide is what the black Americans went through. Revolutionary suicide is the belief that it is better to oppose the forces that would drive people to self-murder than to endure them. People die for revolutionary suicide because they want to live with hope and human dignity. If they can’t have those two elements, then they would rather choose death over living.

I know of a lot of people that chose to die because of many reasons that I may think are stupid, but to them, it means everything. For example, a friend once told me about this girl that died because her boyfriend dumped her. Initially, I thought that that was a really stupid reason to lose your life for, but after I heard the whole story, I can understand why she did it. The couple has been going out for about 3 years and one day; the guy tells the girl that he wants to break up. The girl reluctantly said yes and cried over it for a long time. However, later she finds out that the guy has been cheating on her for more than 5 months with another girl. She was so devastated that she found no point in living and decided to end her life.

I would call this reactionary suicide because the girl was so sad about her boyfriend dumping her because of another girl. She probably couldn’t live knowing the fact that he has been cheating on her for more than 5 months. It still might seem like a stupid reason to us, but to her, it probably meant a lot. It seems that anyone who rebels against the government or society often gets jailed. One of the people that got jailed for rebelling against the government include Nelson Mandela.

He was jailed by the government because he was spreading his beliefs with other protesters. Just like in the movie, “The Edukators” the man that was telling the woman in the shoe store where the shoes were made was arrested. They arrested him because the government didn’t to fight against a rebellion, so they decided to take some of small fry out so it would scare the big crowds. Some people wonder why there are still protests even though they know the consequences.

“The Edukators” helped me answer this question. One of characters in the movie said, “Don’t let fear take control.” The quote is pretty self-explanatory, but it means, people shouldn’t let fear take control of what they do. One good example of this, are political protesters. Even though the political protesters know the consequence of protesting, they still do it because they want to get what they want. They are not letting fear control their actions. It’s like a spirit that never dies in rebellions.

Rebellion is something that is thought of by everyone. Like in “The Edukators,” one of the actors said, “Every heart is a revolutionary cell.” Everyone thinks about rebellions and new revolutions that start a new society. They all want to live in a world that they think is perfect when others may not. I think this quote means that everyone thinks differently about what, so that’s why every heart is a revolutionary cell. If people were to rebel in today’s society, I think they would most likely fail. They would probably end up like the people in “The Edukators.” They all might get arrested and then not be able to do anything about it. Besides, in my personal opinion, I don’t think our society needs to be changed in any way.

Some people like I said before might think differently because we all have different opinions. We all have different thoughts and beliefs so that’s why we have so many rebellions even though some people really don’t care. For example, I don’t really care nor have a say about anything in our society because I think it’s all pretty well organized. My friend however, thinks that our society is totally unorganized because of the existence of George W. Bush.

She joined almost all of the protests that were held against him. One of the most recent ones included “The Walkout.” I didn’t know what it was all about until she told me. Rebelling in the society today will be probably less violent than the protests back then. The government is more willing to listen to new ideas than they were before. Even so, rebellions are protests are less likely to succeed. If I really wanted to change something in our society, I would first try to get rid of the existence of pornography.

Pornography is a sad excuse for some men to claim as pleasure and fun. It is also a total embarrassment to the community. Pornography has no serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. You do not need it to survive so I think that we should just get rid of it as soon as possible. I’m usually a person that doesn’t really care about what happens in the society, but if there was a rebellion to get rid of pornography, I know I would join it. I think it might also be successful too because I know a lot of people that share the same thoughts about it as me.

If I were jailed because of a rebellion, the spirit inside me would never die. I know that I might be like Nelson Mandela and try to bribe the warders to let me read newspapers. That way I would know that the outside world is still having the same beliefs as me. I would know that they have not forgotten about me just because I am jailed. I would know that my peers and followers are not afraid of government abuse. If I were set free, I would continue to climb the hills of the rebellion like Nelson Mandela, “But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”
There are many things in the world that I would like to see change for. One of these many things include the racial discrimination that still exists today. Some people may think that racism doesn’t exist any more, but in truth, it does. A black friend of mine has noticed that whenever she went to Downtown, Seattle, she would receive hateful glances from white people. Sometimes, when she gets on the bus, the bus driver would make a sly comment like “Here comes another one of those people.”

Things like this don’t happen all the time, but it does once in a while. Some actions that I think people should take to reduce the amount of racial discrimination include talking to those individuals that hate or resent blacks or any other race. If we are able to persuade one of them to change their minds, then we can probably get all of them sooner or later. Just like in “The Edukators,” we can “Reach one, Educate 100.”

Another thing that I would also like to see change in our society is the environment. We have a lot of pollution in the atmosphere and it is damaging the Earth more and more. All of the gases from the factories are ruining all of our homes. I want to see more community centers and parks that are actually clean and safe for kids to play around in. Every time I take a stroll in the park, I always see more than 10 pieces of trash lying on the ground. Individuals can actually go out to parks or community center grounds and pick up trash or volunteer to cleanse the place. It would not only help the community, but also yourself.
As for air pollution, I would recommend protesting against the government because they are the only ones that will have the power to stop those factories. We can take steps just like the people in “The Edukators.” Their steps were: Step One: Recognizing injustice. Step Two: Action. Take the first step alone. Find allies for the second. Anyone that wants to rebel or thinks that the government is unfair about something should follow these steps. It can actually work.