Creep…
The world moves too slowly.
No, let me rephrase that. The Revolution™ moves too slowly. I’ve seen and read about women fighting fighting fighting for change, for equality, to be seen as fully human- to have our miseries taken seriously, to have our struggles taken seriously, to have our viewpoints taken seriously. I’ve seen women (and some men, a few, very few) fighting, working to this end for a very long time. In the sixties there seemed to be much talk about the coming “revolution,” but it always sounded like something far off, like that trip to Disneyland you always nagged your parents about. I keep thinking about that revolutionary disneyland, and I want it now, not later. NOW. I look out into the world around me and I am confronted with woman-hating, POC-hating, poor-hating, earth-hating shite all the live long day. I hate it. I hate it I hate it. I can’t stand it anymore. Enough. I want the Revolution NOW. I cannot swallow any more of men’s crap. I’m full. No more. Pass the plate along, I’m done with that.
Good-bye To All That indeed.
Unfortunately, we – who activate for change, who fight oppressions and hate- we know that “revolution” doesn’t happen overnight. The kind of change we work for is not something that can occur overnight, I think. It’s a change that is deep, all-encompassing. Fundamental. How does one change a society in deep and fundamental ways overnight? Sadly, I tend to think that’s not possible. Perhaps if everyone (or large enough numbers of people) were radicalized quickly… but when does that happen? One might argue that the sixties showed how consciousness raising can happen on a large scale, what with the Civil Rights movement and the peace movement, and, of course, the Women’s movement. And certainly much has changed since then. But, still, much seems the same. It seems like nothing really fundamental has changed. So. Was that a revolution?
I can’t remember who, but a feminist somewhere pointed out that even the term “revolution” suggests a violent overthrow, and as such, will inevitably end up being more of the same. For real change to occur, deep shifts in consciousness need to happen, as well as the more obvious changes in law and other institutions.
So I’m left with this image of The Revolution™ being this creeping thing, inching forward, almost imperceptible to those around it. Hence the name of this blog and my user name: during the last ice age, two enormous ice sheets covered almost all of Canada and parts of the US: the Cordilleran in the west, and the larger Laurentian in the east.
So I’m left with this bitterness, this feeling that women’s freedom will not occur in my lifetime, that women will continue to be raped and brutalized, marginalized and dehumanized, by men, for a very, very long time. Of course, all is not lost. Of course one needs to keep fighting. What else is there to do?
Inching Towards the Revolution 