@Radical_EgoCom I am not your enemy here. I believe we want the same thing. It's just we have very different ideas on how to achieve that, based on our life experiences and knowledge.
@Radical_EgoCom You appear to think that counter-revolution is this overwhelming force, post revolution. (Please correct me if I am wrong on that) I don't agree that is the case. Let's imagine the USA, post revolution, in 2032. Priot to revolution 100's of Millions will have been plunged into poverty, the billionaires have run amok, committed endless crimes, started pointless wars, kids will have been drafted and died, mass violence has been committed against, the people, etc, etc. The vast majority of Americans will want change. The vast majority will support a transition to a truly transparent, truly egalitarian, truly... society. There will be some counter-revolution, but non-violent "keeping the peace" actions will suffice. Because the end goal is truly a better country. People crave peace in these situations. There is always a good window of opportunity to turn good will into good progress. Yes, there are lots of ways things may not pan out as planned, but if violence against people is part of that plan, it's far more likely that any revolution will fail.
@Radical_EgoCom Those goals will never be reached because "violent methods put countries on repressive trajectories." Once on those trajectories, it gets harder every day to pivot. There, of course, will always be that messy, chaotic period after a revolution. There will always be random acts of violence, but the message must always be peace and non-violence. We have seen examples like Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in South Africa. I agree there will always be resistance to change after a revolution, but there is also an overwhelming desire for unity too that can be channelled into peacefully quashing counter-revolution.
@Radical_EgoCom Yes, you are right. If we are to stop counter-revolution, then we must do something that humanity has never really succeeded in doing. But someing it absolutely must do to survive and something that's essential to humanity's evolution. That will be to build truly meritocratic, truly transparent, truly inclusive, truly egalitarian, non patriarchal, grassroots democracies that never allow any one person or group to ever claim too much wealth and power. Given what we see happening in the USA right now, and it is only going to get much worse, there will be a huge appetite for this kind of peace.
@Radical_EgoCom@caffinepwrd "violence will be necessary to repress counter-revolution" But you must understand that there will be a much greater desire for "counter-revolution" if a significant number of people have had extreme violence inflicted on them. As MLK points out. "Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness." Why would people support change when it just meant more violence? That only helps the "counter-revolution"
@Radical_EgoCom What it says to me is that "right values" are key. If you start with the wrong values; "any and all violence is acceptable," a revolution has already gone down the wrong path. It's already made the period after revolution harder to navigate and more violent. I accept that most revolution is neither 100% peaceful or 100% violent.
@caffinepwrd@Radical_EgoCom "non-violent means are always complimented by violence." This is because everyone acts out their frustration in different ways. What matters is that non-violent voices dominate, especially when change is won.
@Radical_EgoCom The article covers this right at the beginning. "Compared to nonviolent resistance, violent methods put countries on repressive trajectories by normalising state-on-citizen violence among security forces. These new norms and the resulting human rights violations are likely to persist long after the conflict that engenders them. This implies that nonviolent struggle is much more likely to produce a sustainable peace than violent methods."
@Radical_EgoCom Because there is no motivation, no moral imperative, no logical reason to do otherwise. If "any means necessary" was OK to win power, then "any means necessary" will be OK to maintain power. When maintaining power becomes the new priority, why would a movement NOT use "any means necessary" to keep that power? Its enemies will not disappear or give up. If they don't use "any means necessary" and loose, it will all have been for nothing. A revolution is both the winning of power and the maintaining of power. A revolution is destined to fail if it is birthed through "any means necessary"
@Radical_EgoCom Disagree Because to me, "the means justify the ends" includes any kind of violence. Any movement that is birthed from "the means justify the ends" will end up rulling in the same way. So we will have replaced one evil for a new evil.
@_elena@elena I think the happiest day of a person's life is when they realise they don't have to care about what other people think about them. [Living in "the west"]
@FisherPeter@Radical_EgoCom It's hard to do that because the Capitalists have gone out of their way to destroy any country, economically, that has embraced socialism. It's fair to say that may countries claimed to embrace socialism but were just dictatorships, so they failed.
@mastomememakers I feel like #Fediverse need some killer app to really kick on. That may be just a slicker, more focused version of #Mastodon. Otherwise all the other small great projects happening here, will over time, add up to make a big community.