The thought of a revolution makes my skin crawl. Sure when I was younger the concept of revolution was alluring, honestly who doesn’t like the idea of leading people to victory and glory in their childhood? It’s what superhero movies are made of. Now, revolution makes me cringe. Let me explain, revolutions are messy, very, very messy. More revolutions go south than those that actually work. Also, women are usually collateral damage in chaos like this. We see things like rape happening. The point is that revolutions don’t usually come with peace of mind.
Even during End SARS (if you have no idea what End SARS is click the link and get more information), I remember thinking severally “this protest must not lead to chants for a revolution”.
There is a black conserative I follow on twitter ( don’t fret she is a black conservative that actually likes black people) named Sonnie Johnson, she is @SonnieJohnson on twitter and she said “When they ask for a revolution would you be able to give them a renaissance instead?”
“When they ask for a revolution would you be able to give them a renaissance instead?”
– Sonnie Johnson.
She was talking about something deeper but what stuck out to me is how she defined renaissance. The traditional definition of the renaissance the revival of art and literature under the influence of classical models in the 14th–16th centuries but she defines renaissance as a combination of culture and intellect. Culture she references here is Black American culture but I do think it applies in a general sense.
To stop us from heading to a revolution, we need renaissance: culture and intellect SIMULTANEOUSLY. For culture, we are speaking of values & tradition, art (music, literature & movies), the family basically connecting to “roots”. The intellect is referring to education in areas like history, economics, science, knowledge in entrepreneurship, and business, etc. Intellect has to be as free from bias as much as possible, it has to be “independent”. Intellect has to stick to facts as much as possible.
For a better society, I really do believe the path of renaissance is the way. We should be able to reexamine our values to make sure we are on the path of progress. We should also encourage debate of ideas because that is how we expand the boundaries of intellect. Renaissance over revolution.
