What is Revolution? It's Planned & Channeled Rage, NOT Spontaneity
When we say "conditions for revolution" we aren't talking about angry workers finally deciding in mass that the system has to go. It's a structural channeling of that rage that creates revolution.
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Too many of you treat revolution the same way Evangelicals envision the rapture. Some spontaneous event that will be instant and fulfill all your desires.
Revolution is NOT like the rapture, it’s planned and channeled rage through systems.
Disclaimer:
This article is a historical analysis of political change and organizing and a criticism of those who misinterpret political change and organizing. It is an analysis of structural conditions, not a call for violence or illegal activity.
Nothing in this piece should be interpreted as advocating harm, incitement, or unlawful action. The focus is on civic engagement, community organizing, and understanding the dynamics that shape collective movements.
Revolution & The Conditions for it:
Revolution is neither spontaneous nor is it instant. People romanticize the flashpoints of past uprisings and forget the years of preparation beneath them. Similar to how everyone loves the victory of a MMA fighter, but so few know the tedious hours, days, months, years of training and conditioning.
When there is no strong opposition (aka the communists). When there is a lack of structure, coalitions, activists interlinked with communities, nation-wide supply lines, etc. most people will not act of their own volition, they act when a rival force inspires them and can provide for them what a current government can’t.
When a clear, large, and well organized opposition shows itself, only then do people in mass feel capable of pledging loyalty to change systems.
The bystander effect thrives in a hyper‑individualist society shaped by conformity and anti‑intellectualism; it means most will avoid confrontation, especially if they feel they have too much to lose or that a savior will come. The argument of the “Trouble of the Commons” is a very real phenomenon because everyone, even if courageous and eager to protect the oppressed, has a strong fear others won’t stand up alongside them - and it’s not easily solved by just constantly criticizing individualism without the structure to prove to people that it is possible to stand up when opportunity arises. You cannot expect people to risk everything when there is no organized system capable of shielding them once the situation gets hot.
Many people don’t confront oppression because of this lack of organized opposition. Same with why we don’t have many general strikes, because most fear lack of rent money or groceries, and there is little supplies to solve that due to so many not organizing or funding organizing efforts. Those with the heart need to be involved in the organizing, and pull in those who want to help but are afraid to on their own.
There will never be a spontaneous nation-wide “crashout” of most people until there is a system and groups in place to channel the constant building rage.
Which honestly is a good thing, because spontaneous and unorganized rage is easily outlasted and crushed - if you don’t believe that, look at the all of American history; every single spontaneous revolt with lacking form and mass organization was crushed. American history is littered with the mass slaughter of unorganized, spontaneous, angry people.
Less martyrs, more organizing, that’s how revolutions are won.
If you aren’t willing to do the boring work of organizing - meetings, paperwork, networking, building supply channels, etc. - you’ll never be ready for actual revolution.
People romanticize spontaneous energy, but spontaneity is not strategy. Rage spikes all the time. What matters is whether there are systems ready to catch it, shape it, and route it into something durable.
Revolution is not like the rapture, it’s planned and channeled through systems. Spontaneous events of anger or frustrations are not a spark that just needs the right spokesperson to speak out to, it is a field to be harvested, and people channeled to the organizations and programs that need that anger turn into productive work that makes everyone turn to a new vision.
Rage compounds when channeled correctly; because all revolution is, is simply the rage of the masses demanding a new system, channeled through a structure with new groups at the front, giving that demand form.
Revolution is the inevitable and overwhelming sensation of the majority whose so angry, and the few who organize with a rage that’s as overwhelming as their empathy for the common worker or oppressed. The majority who support the few that are exhausted but unwavering. Revolution is when the new system fueled by compounded anger & empathy is so strong that the old system is exhausted under the weight and fighting to not burn out, but inevitably buckles under its weight.
This is Why We Keep Telling All of You to Organize:
There is organizing happening - programs, channels, mutual aid networks, party chapters, labor formations - but most of it is isolated to individual regions, disconnected, underfunded, and desperately short on hands.
The organizing scene across the US for example is plagued by sectarian infighting, poor OPSEC, weak supply lines (especially nation-wide), lack of consistent & revolutionary tactics and ideology, liberalism, opportunism, electoralism, and more. However, there is at least efforts being made, and more collaboration across party lines than a decade ago. That alone puts these groups miles ahead of the people who sit comfortably at home criticizing every organization from behind an online account.
Many “leftists” have endless opinions about groups that are at least trying, while they themselves have never put boots to the ground beyond attending a protest - and no, attending a protest and shouting is not the height of organizing.
I personally do not care what organization you join, I just care that you join something and start doing real work. You don’t owe undying loyalty to any group, you only owe loyalty to a group whose proven itself to you. Most importantly, you owe yourself the experience, the discipline, and the ability to help steer an organization toward a better path if the organization is lacking.
There is a lot of work to do, no one should be sitting on the sidelines right now, and telling you to “just organize already” isn’t enough. We need as many people as possible in socialist organizations, communist organizations, anti-war groups, labor unions, mutual aid groups, building connections between groups, doing coalition work, connecting mutual aid groups to one another to build a network of them for regions, strengthening every point of contact, and so much more.
It take EVERYONE, including YOU, to get this train moving. You are part of a massive network that, unless made stronger, will never meet the needs of all. Especially the majority who want a new system.
Stop making excuses, get involved and help the people.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License