Internal Revolution
The Untelevised Revolution, Revival, and the Gospel
The great poem by Gil Scott-Heron goes over a lot of heads…the truth is, many of the events referenced in the poem are precisely what cameras are capturing - the poem isn’t about THAT revolution, however. The Revolution Will Not be Televised is a poem about the revolution which happens inside you - the moment in which you are radicalized, the thing which breaks you and reveals the system for what it is.
The internal revolution, which cannot be captured on analog or digital media, will not be televised.
Most of my writing over the last several years has had a simple goal in mind when it comes to its tiny pool of readers; I want you to sit with yourself and examine your place in the world, I want you to understand what the systems of the world are, and I want to ensure the soil in which the seeds of revolution are being planted is fertile. In the rare cases where a reader reaches out to discuss something, it’s always because they’ve experienced a moment of internal revolution - they’ve approached the great moral dilemma of our existence and recognized their place inside it. In Christianese - they’ve been exposed to their sin.
When this happens inside a person there are varied reactions; grief, guilt, anger…denial. Whatever they are, they accompany a need to DO something, anything to make the world right.
It should be clear from my previous posts that I believe we exist in a period of time where the decline of an empire is becoming more rapid and expanding - and thus its methods are becoming more violent, it’s victims broader. This decline and the resulting chaos are the recipe for revolutions both internal and international. The Epstein files, the genocide and occupation of Palestine, The Greater Israel initiative of the occupying entity, the bipartisan nature of these heinous crimes - these things are creating the breaking points in the broader public’s mind - scales are falling off en masse. There is a real panic among the bourgeois.
People of conscious are beginning to act. People of conscious are beginning to lay down their lives for their neighbors, for strangers, for orphans. Fires are being started at concentration camp sites in broad daylight. Praxis is becoming necessary. Those who do heroic things today are able to because they have experienced an internal revolution. They have seen the Truth:
You Are Everyone Else
You have a responsibility to your brother. You are his keeper. No one else is going to do it, so it is up to you.
Not every person expresses this in the same language - but the Truth remains.
For most this won’t result in extreme moments of bravery; for most it will mean changes in how you relate to other people, how you treat them, how you anticipate needs and meet them, how you show love. For many it will mean radical lifestyle changes; less consumption and more community building with found family, focused charitable efforts, and a whole lot of behind the scenes work toward a better world with no recognition at all (and be glad for it). Others will feel compelled to leave jobs due to moral obligations. It will spur different people to different things; they will fulfill different roles - but this moment in history is going to cause a lot of people to confront themselves and at the end of that confrontation they will be driven toward finding their place in changing this world. Revolution and revival are synonyms - any true revival of the Christian religion will carry with it the flames of revolution.
I believe we have entered a flashpoint moment in the fall of this empire at the end of a great crescendo; the Truth can no longer be ignored and the things regular people do in response to that will catch fire to this whole earth. I have always believed that all revolutions begin as an internal process that spreads mimetically by what that process calls us to. Inside me first, inside my family next, then inside my community - living according to the conviction that You Are Everyone Else will change your own world and potentially upheave the entire system of this world as it spreads.
This is the Gospel, whether you call it that or not, and I believe it is a gift to the world that will topple empires and fill you with purpose. The time for revival is upon us, it begins inside you as you heed the call of that small voice inside you that screams for justice.
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