An exceptional work of analysis and vision from one of the most astute observers of the present worldwide revolt. Jerome E. Roos is the founder of ROARmag.org (Reflections on a Revolution), and has traveled extensively in southern Europe over the past year. This is from a talk he gave in Barcelona on the eve of the 1-year anniversary of the uprising of the indignados. It includes links to videos that have inspired revolutionaries in Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and Chile: http://roarmag.org/2012/05/jerome-roos-ovni-2012-revolution-21st-century.
Early on in the article, Roos describes his perspective on the current situation (with links to some previous postings):
We are living through a time in which the illusory sense of growth and progress that underpinned the cultural hegemony of neoliberalism – and its belief that representative democracy and the self-regulating market will bring freedom and prosperity to all – is dying a slow and painful death. The deceptive ideological mirror of the End of History has been shattered, and in come tumbling a whole new range of alternative futures. With the uprisings that started in the Arab world last year, history appears to have started anew. After a brief interlude that began with the end of the Cold War, the ongoing global financial crisis has radically shaken the foundations of the neoliberal world order. The endless struggle has recommenced, and in the process, the horizon of the possible is rapidly shifting. And the most incredible thing is that we’re watching all of it happen right in front of our very eyes.
… and he looks ahead to the kind of society prefigured in the Occupations of 2011:
The occupations at Sol, Syntagma and Zuccotti Park were like a globally interconnected web of tiny little Utopias. They were a whisper from the future; a reflection of the society we wish to create. A society without parties or leaders – where decisions affecting the community are taken collectively and on the basis of consensus. A society with neither wage slavery nor unemployment – where people choose their own type of work and are rewarded on the basis of need, not greed. A self-organized society based on horizontally-networked federation, without hierarchical structures of power or political representation. A society that does not atomize individuals, but that cherishes the idea of community, providing a sense of belonging and fulfillment while leaving individuals perfectly free to develop themselves physically, mentally and spiritually; to actualize their greatest potential and achieve a sense of internal peace and harmony. A society that cherishes culture and creativity, selflessness and solidarity. That is the world that was born in Sol, Syntagma and Plaza Catalunya – that is the vision that gives us hope.
Full story is at http://roarmag.org/2012/05/jerome-roos-ovni-2012-revolution-21st-century.
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2 Responses to “The Meaning and Necessity of Revolution in the 21st Century”
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Although I do not necessarily think that this article, of itself, contains sufficient material to justify the logical presupposition of its title, the author has done well to have included and juxtaposed certain of the historical contexts, geopolitical settings, and possible ecological and economic forces among and because of which the basic yearnings of and for an open collective society have demostratedly emerged, unto and withof these unprecedented numbers and disparate international locations, amidst what were, presumably, formerly unmovably repressive empires and regimes, signalling, thus, we must also wonder, a new or final era of global consciousness and democratic revolution.
Then again, perhaps those who are themselves undertaking the Revolution, in the form of the movements they represent, could provide the only liveable examples and explanation of the ontological imperative of which the act and nature of Revolution of itself consists.
That is, the stated form of those demanding change, besides paralleling and connecting together the framework and concertive trajectory of international relations in general, whether individually or in numbers, reveals the only “stated” case presented alongside or against the dominant forces and entrenched motivations of world society.
The title of the work therefore lends itself to a much lengthier discussion centering around topics which the greatest numbers of humankind are now beginning to themselves realize, become aware of, and collectively address.
Jerome’s analysis is an excellent presentation of the need to be ‘local and global’.The causes of the various acts of protest may be seen as reactions to local corruption, harassment, exploitation,official violence, as well as the straw that broke the camel’s back………that is, an event that is one among many that favoured the privileged.The local action soon became part of the global indignation against the privileged elites, and transformed into the OCCUPY movement.
It is my belief that if the 6.5 billion poor and deprived people across the world could be organised to take protest actions against the plutocratic 500,000, then social change can follow.
My reservation is that at the moment the majorities in places like Egypt are losing ground to the military elites.