The Only True Revolution

Bloody revolution in the streets is not as revolutionary as one might think. A revolution is a disruption, some kind of break in a pattern, something that is outside the pattern, different from the pattern. Well what is the pattern of this world? Is it peace? Is it neighbor love or enemy love? Or is the pattern one of violence, hatred, apathy, self-love/selfishness?

The truth is that we have already seen violent uprising after violent uprising and they have done nothing to break the pattern of violence we see in the world, they have done nothing to bring true peace but they have done everything to perpetuate the pattern. Violent revolution, therefore, is not revolutionary, it is a giving in to the pattern of violence which we see around us. It is the selfish way out, the way which says, "my cause" or "my life is of more importance than your life." It is a forfeiting of imagination.

The only true break in the pattern is martyrdom coupled with forgiveness. To stand and raise voices and to refuse to give into violence knowing all along that the violence won't stop just because you did, it may very well kill you as you stand against it. It is having an imagination which holds fast to resurrection hope, hope that endures, hope that death is part of the pattern which you are disrupting and therefore will die along with the system with which it has been melded and will not have the last word. It is the imagination to see and to anticipate an end to the pattern of violence. The hope and imagination of Martyrdom is the only thing which provides the power to forgive. It is the only true revolution.
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." _Martin Luther King Jr. December 11, 1964

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