The State Of Anarchy: Revolution
A revolution is derived from the Latin word “revolutio” which means a turnaround. A turnaround can be political or constitutional. Many times a revolution leads to a change of government in power or else a change in the constitution itself. Read this text to know more.
I informed you about rebellion and military coup in my previous blogs. What these all three bring about is a shift in power but their mediums are different and so are their goals. We have talked about how frequent are military interventions in Africa causing massive amounts of political instability. A rebellion, a coup, instability, and anger of citizens; all lead to a revolution. According to Google, “a revolution is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government”. The causes of the revolution are still debated among the various intellectuals. The cause of the French Revolution is different from the Iranian revolution.
Even a scholar like Karl Marx predicted a Proletarian Revolution to overthrow the hegemony of the Bourgeoisie. The latter are the influential people who own the means of production while the former works in them. However, this revolution never emerged in the real world and many blame it for the false consciousness of the capitalist system.
If we talk about revolution in African countries like Libya, Somalia, or Sudan, it emerged due to the insatiable hunger for power and influence. But, the leading groups of the revolution convinced the mob that they were their guardian angels. Revolution in these states led to other conflicts and harvested the crops of more such lethal armed conflicts. In the previous decade of the 2010s, there have been four revolutions in the Saharan continent.
The important question that arises is why there haven’t been any successful revolutions in a country like North Korea which has all the reasons like African nations to revolt. The answer is that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. The country is an emblematic representation of George Oliver’s dystopian novel 1984. It basically has concentration camps, secret police, and propaganda working in its favor. People residing are not allowed to use the internet, watch foreign TV shows, access news other reliable mediums or do anything which undermines the rules of the government. And this brings them a state of false reality and they grow accustomed to it. It is the reason why a revolution will not happen against the capitalists as well.
But, can the proletariats fight a Passive Revolution, a term coined by Italian politician and philosopher Antonio Gramsci. It is a revolution that brings changes that are slow and gradual. Gramsci used this term to define the role of the bourgeoisie post World War 1 era in Italy. Can we say, the owners of the means of production lead out this passive revolution? Tell me what do you think.
So, Africa may overthrow its dictators but the cycle of oppression may still perpetuate. The reason the United States’ foreign policies against military interventions is rejected because it does more harm than good. The US deployed troops in Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iran. It overthrew their regimes and now those countries are in a state of chaos. What came across as a revolution like the 2011 Lybian one, became the harbinger of worse times. This is the State of Anarchy where everything is doomed.
