Sunday, November 14, 2010

"It's not a revolution if . . . ."

One of those NPR moments: driving home from school this afternoon I heard part of a story about changes in technology.  Of course I didn't catch the name of the author being interviewed.  Nonetheless, this statement doesn't need either the author's name or the precise context to be thought provoking.

"It is not a revolution if there aren't any losers."  Is this true?  Are there always losers in a revolution?  Not much reflection was needed for me to begin to think that this probably is true and to be rather taken aback that I so seldom think about this reality.  Perhaps the aura of triumph and patriotic pride that surrounds our American Revolution leads us--me--to focus upon the happy outcome that our nation came into being, the first nation founded on a good idea.

Certainly the British lost the war, but I wonder how much they cared.  That is a question someone must have written about.  In these last few days we have been reading some authors who pointed out that the Revolutionary promise of freedom was a long time in fulfillment for many types of Americans; those Americans might be construed as losers in some sense.

If the tea party movement is pushing us toward some sort of revolution in governance, we'd do well to consider who will lose in the changes.

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