The People Have to Be Willing to Die

Rules for revolution #3

When I started this series I didn’t know about the upcoming film Civil War. The trailer dropped after my third installment. “Seems like it’s for the best” says a female character in the lead. She is working in some small business selling things like nothing has changed, though my first thought was, if there is an actual civil war as depicted in the trailer, trade will be reduced to next to nothing and there will be little product for anyone to sell in any shop anywhere.

This still from the film I think speaks to the gender dysphoria of the times, a minority with green hair and pink finger nail polish, firing a sniper rifle, presumably at a sub-human MAGA? I assume that plastic stringy stuff all over the gun must double as a Trans wig, Mr Filthy carries with him everywhere he goes in the midst of war, to entertain his fellow woke freedom fighters in the down time?

Jack Posobeic called it “predictive programming”. Many made light of the plot, Texas and California coming together against the Federal Government. That is called a preposterous twist to deflect responsibility, make it suspension-of-disbelief absurd so people are less likely to condemn it as political provocation: “it’s just art.” Depending of course on how white guys are portrayed generally; if portrayed according to liberals worst fears, no preposterous twist is going to allay that provocation. Many seemed not to pay as much attention to the fact that maybe Texas and California came together because the Federal government under that fictional president is capable of and willing to call for airstrikes against Americans on American soil. Such a monster in the White House could make for strange friendships.

Alex Garland is an English director, Netflix is “woke.” I presume the film will be woke, which is to say, the bad guys will all be white boys, the good guys will all be diverse intersectional identity equitables aka liberal. I wonder if progressives seeing this will be inspired? I would hope the carnage in the film is enough to dis-sway anyone advocating for violent revolution or civil war. Who knows, maybe the film could be cathartic, convincing Americans to stand down generally? Progressives are all about revolution, probably until the moment the shooting actually starts. Middle America I doubt has any appetite for blowing up Main Street. Civil war would mean good bye economy which would mean good bye IRA, 401K, social security, medicare, the dollar; in the short term at least, the internet, smart phones. Goodbye, American empire. Deflation to make equity a real thing, as we are all made exceedingly poorer. If you think excess mortality and reduced life expectancy in the aftermath of covid policy and the jabs is a bad thing, revolution and the resulting civil war would be magnitudes worse. Like, life expectancy reduced by decades.

I said rule #2 of revolution is that the people have to believe. It is one thing to believe in the revolution, it is another thing to be willing to die for the revolution. To believe in the revolution is to accept the basic premise and particular ideas, which is passive. The next step is to recognize that with revolution, a lot of people are going to die, a lot of people you know and love could die, you could die - and come to accept that.

Being willing to die, accepting so much death - because of the hope that the outcome will be better than the present trajectory.

I highly suspect there are not very many people willing to take their rhetoric to the point of actual revolutionary war in America. A few zealots, on both sides, but not many. I’ve no doubt more than a few radicals in America are being radicalized in the way of Hamas, in the current Middle East brouhaha. Antifa has precedent, martyrs willingly dying on the line. They have shown plenty of willingness to take it to the streets, burning buildings, looting. That is a step beyond simply believing. But most of them are the children of the white middle and upper class. They are too narcissistic probably to do much more than cosplay revolution, certainly not self aware enough to bother or even care about generating broad public support.

For all the talk about nazis on Substack lately, and the rhetoric from Biden, the White House and major media about MAGA being the greatest threat to democracy in America, the real danger is Antifa and Hamas-inspired being provoked to terrify main street, by the federal government. I would not at all be surprised to see a sudden influx of “nazis” on Substack and elsewhere, who are actually feds, provoking the left, trying to force Substack to relent to censorship, trying to get Americans to support martial law essentially. Anarcho-tyranny is the government destabilizing main street, by releasing criminals and refusing to prosecute, defunding police, releasing spook-trained provocateurs to make mischief, also making useful idiots of the likes of Antifa as a means to expand government powers.

Conservatives by definition mean to conserve, and in this case the main thing to conserve from the perspective of conservatives in America is America as we have known it. Not the America since 2020, not even the America of the last fifty or 70 years, but the America that was meant to be a Republic of sovereign individuals, strong families and communities. Ironically, it is conservatives who would be more willing to die to save America, but conservatives also have a much better idea about the consequences of war, and there frankly is no appetite for such, broadly on the right. Not really. That said, I’ve a pretty good idea which side would “win” such a civil war, willing to die for it, if it should come to that.

Revolution in any context never truly occurs until a significant number of citizens come to believe and accept that it is worth dying for such a war. Of course too, willing to die for the revolution, makes one more likely to be willing to kill for the revolution. What with 400 million guns in America, this too the seat of empire and all the military hardware and means to make more contained within, it is hard to imagine a worse fate for America, a significant number of Americans willing to die, killing each other, even as that seems the fate a significant number of people foreign and domestic would like to provoke.

So there you have it. If you want to start a revolution in America, convince Americans it is worth dying for. Convince yourself. If you can’t convince yourself, you shouldn’t try to convince your fellow Americans. I don’t think I have to say anything more about it than that.

This concludes my initial assessment of rules for revolution, three simple rules: the people have to eat, the people have to believe, and the people have to be willing to die for the revolution.

There will be one more installment, concluding remarks, sometime after Christmas.

Do-Over Revolution

The People Have to Eat

The People Have to Believe