Rebellion and Revolution and Beyond

 Grace Lee Boggs, (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015)

I've been thinking a great deal about this quote by Grace Lee Boggs, of late:

“Being a victim of oppression in the United States is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother’s womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.”

There is enormous wisdom jam packed into that relatively short quote and some of it is not necessarily easy for many of us activists to accept. Each and every sentence is worthy of its own long form essay in order for us to truly unpack all the various nuggets of wisdom each sentence contains. I deeply appreciate the fact that Grace Lee Boggs is someone very few people can reasonably argue against her being someone to listen to in terms of what does and does not contribute to being a revolutionary. The documentary about her life is, after all, entitled, American Revolutionary: The Grace Lee Boggs Story.

A week or so ago I placed this above quote on my primary facebook page, on my facebook teaching page, and on my blog as well. It’s very rare for me to do that. The main reason I did so is because the quote struck such a powerful chord with me. I also noticed that I was not alone in this. In both my "real life" and my online life I have an extraordinarily diverse group of friends, associates, followers, teachers, people who consider themselves my students, etc. And I noticed that those who “liked” this quote or who sent me personal messages containing their positive thoughts about it also fairly well represented this same degree of diversity. They included progressive social justice activists I know as well as very conservative social justice activists I know. They included religious folks, spiritual folks, atheists, people across many lanes of the political divide—Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, People from The Green Party, People from The Peace and Freedom Party, etc.

One of the things all of this seemed to be telling me is that many different types of people are getting tired of people who present themselves as revolutionaries, or as nonviolent protesters, or as people who are trying to make a positive difference in the world—people who do so primarily through expressed hate, anger, perceived victimization, separation consciousness, and as the expressed and unacknowledged internalized value system that is a carbon copy of the value system of the oppressor even though it may be masquerading, consciously or unconsciously, as something very different. I believe people are getting very astute at recognizing the difference between people engaged in elaborate rebellions and people who are genuine revolutionaries, the difference between protest organizing and visionary organizing. I am not necessarily saying there is not a place for each. I am simply saying that like Grace Lee Boggs, people seem to be awakening to the differences there and are directing their energies in ways that reflect these awakening insights.

The roots of most personal and collective activism, whether it is an activism that is couched in either right wing or left wing rhetoric or so called progressive or conservative politics is often inspired by hate, anger, rage, deep dissatisfaction, deep frustration, revenge, a sense of personal, familial, community, or identity group victimization or some event or a series of events that pushes someone over the edge emotionally—into activism.

Because of this, it is extremely easy, of course, for one’s entire activism to be ruled by these same emotions and factors, even if one also views his or her activism as being deeply grounded in very altruistic, beautiful, and love based spirituality and religious thought and action. The human ego is extremely crafty. All we have to do is look at the extensive history of wars, terrorism, genocide, and destruction in all of human history that is based in overtly pious, religious, and spiritual fervor and beliefs.

In my own personal life as well, when I look at it very honestly and very unflinchingly, I quickly discover that the people who have been the most insensitive, the cruelest, the most hateful, the most vengeful, the most emotionally violent, the most bullying, and the most terroristic toward me have all been people whom I personally knew had been very deeply traumatized in life or who were deeply spiritual or religious or all three. Every single one.

So both my extensive knowledge of world history, especially world religious history, and my own personal life experiences inform me that experienced personal and deep trauma and deeply held personal religious and spiritual beliefs, when underpinning ones social activism, can be an extremely combustive, ugly, mean spirited, and even a deadly or genocidal combination.

However.

Ironically, and interestingly, grace-full-ly and thankfully (Hallelujah!) these exact same factors can also coalesce in a human being to produce the most exquisitely heart and soul based, and love centered activism any of us could ever possibly imagine.

Mahatma Gandhi witnessed the devastating effects that colonialism had on his beloved country, personally experienced the injustice of one of the most complete expressions of racism the world has ever seen as expressed through the system of apartheid in South Africa, and witnessed the slaughter of countless numbers of his countryman and countrywomen. His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama had to escape his beloved home country under the threat of what would have otherwise been certain death, witness the systematic attempted destruction of his cultural heritage in his birth land and also witnessed the deaths of fellow countrymen and countrywomen and adherents of his religion. Thích Nhất Hạnh witnessed his beloved birth country ripped apart by war, witnessed the horrible deaths of countless friends, family, and fellow monks and nuns. Martin Luther King, Jr, Fanny Lou Hammer, and Sojourner Truth all belong to the same grouping and there are many others both in the past and walking among us right this very moment.

“…Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.” (Emphasis added by moi).

Photo by Robin Holland