Monday, April 03, 2006

A deep desire to overthrow something

One thing I noticed while watching V for Vendetta is that deep down I really do want to overthrow a government or a world system or something like that. I suppose the title of my blog gives that away. I have a pretty deep-seated desire for Justice. I like to see the bad guy get punished. I like to be the one to do the punishing. I can see the way someone's mind works when they start to say, "Hey, we should overthrow this government and replace it with something clean and new and beautiful."

But then we get to the means of accomplishing that, and I start to wonder if violent overthrows really do the deed. I mean, thank you Founding Fathers, for throwing all the tea into Boston Harbor and so on, but was that really the way to go about things? I wonder.

I guess my thought is that real revolution, real transformation, has to start with individuals and their connections to the people around them, and spread like a virus. What good is it to overthrow a tyrant and replace them with another? That seems to be our history, us as a human race.

I hope that my writing can have more effect on the lives of others than me killing someone. More positive effect, at least. I hope that living a righteous life, in the end, will mean more than killing a king or queen or whomever. I hope that being a good father will have more transforming effect on my society than me stomping out a bad government.

I just don't think terrorism works. Not in the way that a "freedom fighter" hopes it will. I don't think violence is the answer, unless that violence can somehow distinguish between the righteous and the evil, the just and the unjust. And I think the only revolution that will matter, the only one that changes anything in the future of our world is the revolution of the heart. That's the only revolution that can bring lasting, beneficial change on a societal level.

4 comments:

  1. On the other hand, I would like to point out that when Jesus comes back it will be with a double-edged sword in his mouth and that the blood will flow as high as a horse's saddle in the Valley of Armageddon and so on. So, that seems like a pretty violent revolution to me.

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  2. Ah, but you see, that's why I wrote, "I don't think violence is the answer, unless that violence can somehow distinguish between the righteous and the evil, the just and the unjust." Only Jesus can do that, bring judgement and not just bloodshed. My point is that human attempts to violently create positive change is difficult to do without creating injustice in the process. See?

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  3. Well. That's your choice. But I am going to sock you in the nose if you disagree with me.

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  4. Go ahead ya big -- OW! Hey, knock it off!

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