Chris Hedges: This is What A Revolution Looks Like

Sproul Plaza, Berkeley, Dance Party 11/16/11

It's all about the dancing now.

From a few days ago:

The historian Crane Brinton in his book “Anatomy of a Revolution” laid out the common route to revolution. The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis. Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power. The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.

Any Revolution Worth Having

Needs Dancing:


Needs Laughter:

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And absolutely needs Divas:

"A Revolution Without Dancing is Not a Revolution Worth Having" -- Emma Goldman

[This is video of an Occupy Oakland dance party on October 10, 2011, their first day of Occupation at Oscar Grant Plaza -- aka Frank Ogawa Plaza -- in front of City Hall]

Last night, Occupy Seattle and Occupy Oakland both concluded their General Assemblies and began Dance Parties that lasted in Seattle for hours into the night, and may well have done the same in Oakland, though I am not sure, as I wasn't able to stay with the stream much past the end of GA, and supposedly, the Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall now officially closes at 10pm.)

(Livestreaming is a wonderful thing, but the technology is not perfected by any means; what you are actually seeing on the feeds at any given time is never entirely clear, as many Livestreams may be putting out archived material or material from other Occupations rather than live webcasts from whatever Occupation one has tuned into. Often, very, very often, live webcasting is choppy with frequent outages, and very often, too, there is no simultaneous verbal description of what is seen. Consequently, you just have to make your way through it as best you can.)

Of course previously, the Occupy Oakland GA approved calling for a General Strike on November 2, 2011, as an appropriate tactic in the ongoing struggle with The Powers That Be.

Dance Parties, whether regularly scheduled or impromptu, have become very much a part of the Occupy Movement. Sometimes the drummers provide accompaniment, but more and more, there are DJs spinning music on the record machine -- as there was last night in both Oakland and Seattle.

Funny thing. As I was pondering the very serious events in Oakland and Atlanta and other cities where evictions of Occupiers were carried out in the last couple of days, I kept thinking, "There ought to be dancing."

And there is. There is dancing. There are lots of ways to do it. Here's what they did in Vancouver in February of last year:



(How many times have I posted "Dancing in the Streets" over the last couple of years?)

What this sort of thing does is disarm both the police and the public. How can you argue with sheer joy?