{"id":3431,"date":"2011-09-08T13:43:21","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T19:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=3431"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:26:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T20:26:51","slug":"being-a-revolutionary-a-constant-struggle-in-our-thoughts-words-and-deeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/being-a-revolutionary-a-constant-struggle-in-our-thoughts-words-and-deeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a revolutionary: A constant struggle in our thoughts, words, and deeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Intrepid Report on\u00a0<\/span>September 8, 2011<\/a>
\nRepublished in World-wide Asian-Eurasian Human Rights Forum on September 9, 2011<\/a><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Larry Pinkney<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThose who do not move, do not notice their chains.\u201d
\n\u2014Rosa Luxemburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.\u201d
\n\u2014Ernesto \u2018Che\u2019 Guevara<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this 21st century, the very survival of this planet (Mother Earth) and humanity demands a conscious and deliberate meshing, and evolving\u00a0of and in,<\/em>\u00a0our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. This century demands that we humans utilize a revolutionary vision that recognizes not merely how things are, but concomitantly how they can be\u00a0made to be<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wars, greed, economic austerity and exploitation, corporate hegemony, racism, sexism, and the like are human-made conditions that absolutely do\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0have to prevail. These conditions have been artificially created by certain humans, and in reality, are the antithesis to the evolvement of humankind collectively.<\/p>\n

The essence of humanity\u2019s collective growth and development is\u00a0not<\/em> to be found in individual so-called \u201cleaders,\u201d but in just plain everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people\u00a0collectively<\/em>.\u00a0The revolutionary is that woman or man who recognizes that\u00a0revolution<\/em>\u00a0is an\u00a0ongoing<\/em>\u00a0process whose home is always found within the thought processes of the mind, which ultimately lead to actions (i.e., deeds). For example, the farmer who engages in the (euphemistically\u00a0revolutionary<\/em>) act of tilling and overturning the soil must first have a\u00a0conscious<\/em> mental awareness of what kind of soil is to be tilled and what his or her objective actually is in tilling it (i.e., what crop is to be grown).<\/p>\n

The terror of lethargy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks to the disinformation, misinformation, and omissions by U.S. \u2018educational\u2019 institutions and the corporate-stream media, etc., a vast segment of the populace of the United States is kept in a perpetual state of lethargy. This too, must first be recognized for what it is so that it\u00a0can<\/em>\u00a0be reversed.<\/p>\n

This above-mentioned disinformation, misinformation, and omission is in fact a contrived and very deliberate form of\u00a0psychological terrorism<\/em>\u00a0meant to control and manipulate everyday people in this nation, with disastrous affects both here and abroad. This is why so many people feel both anger and a sense of helplessness\u00a0simultaneously<\/em>.\u00a0This is also why they find themselves stratified, remaining lethargic\u2014like some caged hamster running mindlessly on a perpetually spinning wheel.<\/p>\n

The revolutionary is a\u00a0critical thinker<\/em>\u00a0and understands the absolute need to constantly strive to mesh our words and deeds with the revolutionary thought process itself. This is a\u00a0constant struggle<\/em>\u2014but it is also a liberating one. We must all remember that the terror of lethargy is only too real. Yet, the revolutionary (as a critical thinker) does have the tools to effectively neutralize this psychological terror.<\/p>\n

Irrespective of color or gender, there are many pitfalls, systemic traps and\/or ensnarements with which the revolutionary must grapple. Yet, our human and revolutionary responsibility is to do exactly that\u2014grapple with them<\/em>;\u00a0and grow and develop.<\/p>\n

The deadly trap of male chauvinism<\/strong><\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a male on this planet who has not been, in one way or another, injected with the\u00a0systemically ingrained virus known as male chauvinism<\/em>.\u00a0The degrees of this systemic injection may vary, but the injection is nonetheless real and can be very deadly to the revolutionary process and our own humanity.<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0about self-recrimination. It\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0about recognizing the necessity for continual self examination with a view towards broadening our humanity and furthering the revolutionary process in not only thoughts, but also in words and deeds. It must be reiterated that this\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0a struggle\u2014but an extremely necessary and liberating<\/em> one for\u00a0both<\/em> genders.<\/p>\n

Moreover, this is not about demonstrating tokenism towards women. Tokenism is as unacceptable in the context of gender as it is in the context of color. The great revolutionary slave abolitionist John Brown, known for his leadership role in the slave rebellion of 1859 at Harpers Ferry, made it clear that his actions had as much to do with his\u00a0own humanity<\/em>\u00a0as with that of enslaved Black women, men, and children. John Brown understood that despite his being White, slavery was a blight upon\u00a0his own humanity<\/em>. Like racism, male chauvinism is a pathology, and it must be recognized, grappled with, struggled against, and ultimately eradicated. If we are revolutionaries then we\u00a0must<\/em>\u00a0do this.<\/p>\n

Women revolutionaries have repeatedly demonstrated that they were and remain\u00a0an integral and invaluable part of humanity\u2019s struggle, and they must be accorded full equality in all aspects of the struggle, including leadership<\/em>.\u00a0The leadership, intellect, hard work, and commitment of women such as Kiilu Nyasha, Kathleen Cleaver, Assata Shakur, Yuri Kochiyama, Lynne Stewart, and the late Marilyn Buck, to name but a very few, have demonstrated in this 21st century what other revolutionary women\u00a0forerunners<\/em> had previously laid the ground work for in the United States and globally.<\/p>\n

In the words of Rosa Luxemburg: \u201cThose who do not move, do not notice their chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us move forward and recognize our chains (both mental and physical)\u00a0so that we might throw them off!<\/em>\u00a0Che was correct when he said that \u201cthe true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.\u201d Our love is\u00a0that of the revolutionary<\/em>. Our revolution is that of humanity.<\/p>\n

Onward then. my sisters and brothers! Onward!<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n