History Quotes / TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized

-->--''Series/Luther''

-->--''Luther''

-->-- '''[[http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-revolution-donald-trump-2016-213684 David A. Bell]]
[[/folder]]'''

--> [[http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-revolution-donald-trump-2016-213684 David A. Bell]]
[[/folder]]

->In war, ideals can be corrupted.

->You see, The Founders ain't nothing but weeds: Cut'em down, they'll just grow back. If you wanna get rid of the weed, [[FinalSolution you got to pull it up from the root.]]

->58% of those arrested in connection with the riots came from the poorest 20% of areas of England. This fact speaks volumes about the causes of the riots. And perhaps more to the point, it is not necessarily reasonable to expect people’s howl of outrage at the apparent and hopeless dead end that is their life to be [[TheManisStickingItToTheMan orderly and productive.]]
-->--'''[[http://www.philipsandifer.com/2014/07/build-high-for-happiness-night-terrors.html Dr. Phil Sandifer]]''' on the 2011 England riots

-->--Polish peasants in the path of NapoleonBonaparte, from ''1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow'' by Adam Zamoyski.

-->--'''Colonel Saul Tigh''' of the New Caprican Resistance, ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''.

->Che did indeed kill people. He killed enemy soldiers on the battlefield, like any professional soldier of any nation. He killed undisciplined guerillas who would abuse their power and terrorize the populace, raping and killing peasant women and children. Che also killed soldiers of Batista’s army for heinous war crimes, and members of the hated secret police, the Bureau of Repression of Communist Activities, who were known for their brutality and use of torture....Usually, what happens is that, in the case of the Russian Civil War and the Cuban Revolution, the reactionary faction in power is brutal and uses atrocious methods to eliminate the rebel threat like torture. The rebels are then forced to become just as bad if they want to secure victory. Violence breeds violence.

->Certainly the riots were tremendously self-defeating. There is no reasonable way to claim that they were not in part, indeed, in a substantial part motivated by little more than outright anger and destructiveness. Many, indeed the overwhelming majority of people directly harmed by the riots were by any sensible standard innocent victims. And no sensible theory of political activism can really conclude that indiscriminate smashing of stuff is going to get you much of anywhere.\\\
All of which said, in practice there is something grimly inevitable about riots -- [[PowderKegCrowd a toxic mixture of poverty, degradation, and summer heat that periodically and predictably combusts.]] 58% of those arrested in connection with the riots came from the poorest 20% of areas of England. This fact speaks volumes about the causes of the riots. And perhaps more to the point, it is not necessarily reasonable to expect people’s howl of outrage at the apparent and hopeless dead end that is their life to be orderly and productive.

->Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant--the one who wanted to help the Black Muslims and the whites get together--and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident...I did many things as a Black Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then (like all Black Muslims), I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days--I'm glad to be free of them.
-->--'''UsefulNotes/MalcolmX'''

->Take these guys in what are called the 'militias' -- I mean, obviously they're not militias in the Second Amendment sense: 'militias' are things raised by states, these are just paramilitary organizations.... They don't read the "''Fortune 500''" and [[BatDeduction put together an analysis of what's really going on]] in the world, all they've had rammed to their heads is, ''"The Federal Government's your enemy."''
-->--'''Noam Chomsky'''

->The conservatives are now tending toward fascism — [[HobbesWasRight crack down on dissent]], [[StateSec support your local police]], [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem disobey the Supreme Court]] — while the New Left wants to destroy the entire system. Emotionally, I’m drawn to the New Left. I would certainly go to the barricades for any movement that wants to sweep away the Pentagon, ''Time'' interviews, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and frozen French fried potatoes]]. But what is to take its place? The New Left not only have no blueprint, they don’t want a blueprint. [[IndyPloy Let’s just see what happens]], they say. Well, I can tell them what will happen: first anarchy, then dictatorship. They are rich in [[Creator/ThomasPaine Tom Paines]], but they have no UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson.

-->-- '''Doctor Fletcher''', ''ItHappenedHere''

-->--Damien O'Donovan, ''TheWindThatShakesTheBarley''

-->--'''Roseanne Barr'''

[[folder:fiction]]
->''You picked a fight\\
I pick dynamite''
-->--'''Music/SteveTaylor''', "I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good"

->''I raise my flag and dye my clothes\\
It's a revolution, I suppose\\
We're [[PaintTheTownRed painted red]] to fit right in''
-->--'''Radioactive''', ''Music/ImagineDragons''

->''You say you want a revolution\\
Well, you know, we all want to change the world\\
But when you talk about destruction,\\
Don't you know that [[DefectorFromDecadence you can count me out]]''
-->--'''Music/JohnLennon''', "Revolution"

->''You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool\\
You speak of liberation and when the people rule\\
Well ain't it people rule right now, what difference would there be?\\
Just another set of bigots with their rifle-sights on me''
-->--''Bloody Revolutions'' lyrics, by '''Crass'''.

->In war, ideals can be corrupted.
-->-- '''Optimus Prime''', ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''

->We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a paradise where human beings would be free and equal]]. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
-->--'''O'Brien''', ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''

->You see, The Founders ain't nothing but weeds: Cut'em down, they'll just grow back. If you wanna get rid of the weed, [[FinalSolution you got to pull it up from the root.]]
-->--'''Daisy Fitzroy''', ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite''

->Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go.
-->--'''Colonel Saul Tigh''' of the New Caprican Resistance, ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}''.

->There's one hole in every revolution, large or small … people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.

->'''Blake''': I meant what I said on Goth, Avon. We are not going to use Star One to rule the federation. We are going to destroy it.\\
'''Avon''': I never doubted that. I never doubted your fanaticism. As far as I am concerned, you can destroy whatever you like. You can stir up a thousand revolutions. You can wade in blood up to your armpits. Oh, and you can lead the rabble to victory, whatever that might mean. Just so long as there is an end to it.
-->--''Series/BlakesSeven''

->It's easy to know what you are against, but quite another to know what you are for.
-->--Damien O'Donovan, ''TheWindThatShakesTheBarley''

->Idealists and reformers all become executioners in their turn. The road to utopia ends with the steps of the scaffold, [[ReignOfTerror the endless moment of the guillotine.]]
-->--'''Creator/GrantMorrison''', ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles Vol. 1: Say You Want a Revolution''

[[folder:real life]]
->The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope into excesses]].
-->--'''UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton'''

->The Frenchman came to remove our fetters. But he [[{{Plunder}} took our boots]] instead.
-->--Polish peasants in the path of NapoleonBonaparte, from ''1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow'' by Adam Zamoyski.

->To destroy that enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made to bear [[HeWhoFightsMonsters some analogy and resemblance]] to the force and spirit which that system exerts.
-->--'''Edmund Burke''' on the Jacobins

->The vessel of Revolution can arrive at port only on a sea reddened by torrents of blood.
-->-- '''Louis Antoine de Saint-Just'''

->If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be [[FullCircleRevolution worse than the Tsar himself]].
-->--'''Mikhail Bakunin'''

->A few years from now, I told him, perhaps others would be killing each other for anti-nationalist ideals. Then they would laugh at our own killings just as we had laughed at the Byzantines. These others would indulge in mutual slaughter with the same enthusiasm, though [[HistoryRepeats their ideals were new]]. Warfare under the entirely fresh banners would be just as disgraceful as always. They might even rip each others' guts out then with religious zeal, claiming that they were '[[KnightTemplar fighting to end all fighting.]]' But they took would be followed by still others who would laugh at them with the same gusto.
-->--'''Stratis Myrivilis''', ''Life in the Tomb''

->The future fascists will call themselves [[{{Newspeak}} anti-fascists.]]
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill'''

->Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/MaoZedong'''

->Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy'''

->Che did indeed kill people. He killed enemy soldiers on the battlefield, like any professional soldier of any nation. He killed undisciplined guerillas who would abuse their power and terrorize the populace, raping and killing peasant women and children. Che also killed soldiers of Batista’s army for heinous war crimes, and members of the hated secret police, the Bureau of Repression of Communist Activities, who were known for their brutality and use of torture....Usually, what happens is that, in the case of the Russian Civil War and the Cuban Revolution, the reactionary faction in power is brutal and uses atrocious methods to eliminate the rebel threat like torture. The rebels are then forced to become just as bad if they want to secure victory. Violence breeds violence. Batista’s pro-US puppet regime was paradise for mafia kingpins and Unitedstatian businessmen, and hell for Cubans and those in extreme poverty. Revolutions like these, demanding immediate and specific changes, don’t happen without a reason.
-->--'''[[http://metagearsolid.org/2015/01/big-boss-as-che-guevara/ Alexander Sylazhov]]''', "[[Franchise/MetalGear Big Boss]] as UsefulNotes/CheGuevara"


->Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do ''freedom'' fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
-->--'''Creator/GeorgeCarlin'''

->According to official {{North Korea}}n mythology, Kim Il Sung, the 'Great Leader,' is immortal, arose from the grave to be with us forever, and lives in the hearts of every Korean, who all bubble over with intense love and adoration toward Him, [[BlahBlahBlah et cetera, et cetera, et cetera]]. According to everyone else, he was a failed guerrilla leader who spent much of WWII unsuccessfully attempting to free Korea from the iron fist of the Japanese so it could be seized by the iron fist of Kim Il Sung instead.
-->--'''''RationalWiki'''''

->Take these guys in what are called the 'militias' -- I mean, obviously they're not militias in the Second Amendment sense: 'militias' are things raised by states, these are just paramilitary organizations.... They don't read the "''Fortune 500''" and [[BatDeduction put together an analysis of what's really going on]] in the world, all they've had rammed to their heads is, 'The Federal Government's your enemy.' If you come to them with a political framework that could lead to some kind of productive change, it's all just another power-play as far as they're concerned -- and with some justice: everything else they've been told is a crock, so why should they believe you?
-->--'''Noam Chomsky'''

->The conservatives are now tending toward fascism — [[HobbesWasRight crack down on dissent]], [[StateSec support your local police]], [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem disobey the Supreme Court]] — while the New Left wants to destroy the entire system. Emotionally, I’m drawn to the New Left. I would certainly go to the barricades for any movement that wants to sweep away the Pentagon, ''Time'' interviews, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and frozen French fried potatoes]]. But what is to take its place? The New Left not only have no blueprint, they don’t want a blueprint. [[IndyPloy Let’s just see what happens]], they say. Well, I can tell them what will happen: first anarchy, then dictatorship. They are rich in [[Creator/ThomasPaine Tom Paines]], but they have no UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson.
-->--'''Creator/GoreVidal''', ''Playboy'' 1969

->Certainly the riots were tremendously self-defeating. There is no reasonable way to claim that they were not in part, indeed, in a substantial part motivated by little more than outright anger and destructiveness. Many, indeed the overwhelming majority of people directly harmed by the riots were by any sensible standard innocent victims. And no sensible theory of political activism can really conclude that indiscriminate smashing of stuff is going to get you much of anywhere.\\\
All of which said, in practice there is something grimly inevitable about riots -- [[PowderKegCrowd a toxic mixture of poverty, degradation, and summer heat that periodically and predictably combusts.]] 58% of those arrested in connection with the riots came from the poorest 20% of areas of England. This fact speaks volumes about the causes of the riots. And perhaps more to the point, it is not necessarily reasonable to expect people’s howl of outrage at the apparent and hopeless dead end that is their life to be orderly and productive.
-->--'''[[http://www.philipsandifer.com/2014/07/build-high-for-happiness-night-terrors.html Dr. Phil Sandifer]]''' on the 2011 England riots

Che did indeed kill people. He killed enemy soldiers on the battlefield, like any professional soldier of any nation. He killed undisciplined guerillas who would abuse their power and terrorize the populace, raping and killing peasant women and children. Che also killed soldiers of Batista’s army for heinous war crimes, and members of the hated secret police, the Bureau of Repression of Communist Activities, who were known for their brutality and use of torture. People seem to forget that in times of war, both sides commit heinous acts as the nature of war is violent and brutal, and signs of weakness usually mean defeat. This is true to the nature of the Unitedstatian Civil War, the Russian Civil War, The First and Second World Wars, The Vietnam War, etcetera. Usually, what happens is that, in the case of the Russian Civil War and the Cuban Revolution, the reactionary faction in power is brutal and uses atrocious methods to eliminate the rebel threat like torture. The rebels are then forced to become just as bad if they want to secure victory. Violence breeds violence. Batista’s pro-US puppet regime was paradise for mafia kingpins and Unitedstatian businessmen, and hell for Cubans and those in extreme poverty. Revolutions like these, demanding immediate and specific changes, don’t happen without a reason.

The best part regarding the media manipulation of this affair is that Fidel and the revolutionaries would often ask the populace (peasants and workers) whether they wanted those sentenced to death to be pardoned, and the peoples unanimously always requested their executions. Batista’s supporters were noted for their war crimes and use of physical torture aside from other atrocities, so it’s no surprise the peasants wanted the revolutionaries to exact justice they couldn’t bring for themselves. Of course, this is never mentioned in the media. It is now a well-known fact that the Cuban revolutionaries had mass support from the locals, and that it is one of the factors why the managed to win. Peace Walker even acknowledges this fact in one of its briefing tapes. Here’s what Jon Lee Anderson has to say;
-->--'''[[http://metagearsolid.org/2015/01/big-boss-as-che-guevara/ Alexander Sylazhov]]''', "Big Boss as UsefulNotes/CheGuevara"

->''"You picked a fight\\
I pick dynamite"''

->''"I raise my flag and dye my clothes\\

We're [[PaintTheTownRed painted red]] to fit right in"''

->''"You say you want a revolution\\

Don't you know that you can count me out"''

->''"You talk of overthrowing power with violence as your tool\\

Just another set of bigots with their rifle-sights on me."''

->''"In war, ideals can be corrupted."''

->''"We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a paradise where human beings would be free and equal]]. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."''

->''"You see, The Founders ain't nothing but weeds: Cut'em down, they'll just grow back. If you wanna get rid of the weed, [[FinalSolution you got to pull it up from the root.]]"''

->''"Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go."''

->''"There's one hole in every revolution, large or small … people. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution."''

-->--'''''Luther'''''

'''Avon''': I never doubted that. I never doubted your fanaticism. As far as I am concerned, you can destroy whatever you like. You can stir up a thousand revolutions. You can wade in blood up to your armpits. Oh, and you can lead the rabble to victory, whatever that might mean. Just so long as there is an end to it. When Star One is gone, it is finished, Blake. And I want it finished. I want it over and done with. I want to be free.\\
'''Cally''': But you are free now, Avon.\\
'''Avon''': I want to be free of ''him''.

->''"It's easy to know what you are against, but quite another to know what you are for."''

->''“Idealists and reformers all become executioners in their turn. The road to utopia ends with the steps of the scaffold, [[ReignOfTerror the endless moment of the guillotine.]]”''\\
--'''Creator/GrantMorrison''', ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles Vol. 1: Say You Want a Revolution''

->''"The passions of a revolution are apt to hurry even good men [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope into excesses]]."''
-->--'''AlexanderHamilton'''

->''“To destroy that enemy, by some means or other, the force opposed to it should be made to bear [[HeWhoFightsMonsters some analogy and resemblance]] to the force and spirit which that system exerts.”''

-> ''"The vessel of Revolution can arrive at port only on a sea reddened by torrents of blood."''

->''“If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be [[FullCircleRevolution worse than the Tsar himself]].”''

->''"A few years from now, I told him, perhaps others would be killing each other for anti-nationalist ideals. Then they would laugh at our own killings just as we had laughed at the Byzantines. These others would indulge in mutual slaughter with the same enthusiasm, though [[HistoryRepeats their ideals were new]]. Warfare under the entirely fresh banners would be just as disgraceful as always. They might even rip each others' guts out then with religious zeal, claiming that they were '[[KnightTemplar fighting to end all fighting.]]' But they took would be followed by still others who would laugh at them with the same gusto."''

->''"Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another."''
-->-- '''MaoZedong'''

->''"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."''

->''"Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?"''

->''"According to official {{North Korea}}n mythology, Kim Il Sung, the 'Great Leader,' is immortal, arose from the grave to be with us forever, and lives in the hearts of every Korean, who all bubble over with intense love and adoration toward Him, [[BlahBlahBlah et cetera, et cetera, et cetera]]. According to everyone else, he was a failed guerrilla leader who spent much of WWII unsuccessfully attempting to free Korea from the iron fist of the Japanese so it could be seized by the iron fist of Kim Il Sung instead."''

->''"Take these guys in what are called the 'militias' -- I mean, obviously they're not militias in the Second Amendment sense: 'militias' are things raised by states, these are just paramilitary organizations.... They don't read the "''Fortune 500''" and [[BatDeduction put together an analysis of what's really going on]] in the world, all they've had rammed to their heads is, 'The Federal Government's your enemy.' If you come to them with a political framework that could lead to some kind of productive change, it's all just another power-play as far as they're concerned -- and with some justice: everything else they've been told is a crock, so why should they believe you?"''

->''"The conservatives are now tending toward fascism — [[HobbesWasRight crack down on dissent]], [[StateSec support your local police]], [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem disobey the Supreme Court]] — while the New Left wants to destroy the entire system. Emotionally, I’m drawn to the New Left. I would certainly go to the barricades for any movement that wants to sweep away the Pentagon, ''Time'' interviews, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and frozen French fried potatoes]]. But what is to take its place? The New Left not only have no blueprint, they don’t want a blueprint. [[IndyPloy Let’s just see what happens]], they say. Well, I can tell them what will happen: first anarchy, then dictatorship. They are rich in [[Creator/ThomasPaine Tom Paines]], but they have no ThomasJefferson."''

->''"Certainly the riots were tremendously self-defeating. There is no reasonable way to claim that they were not in part, indeed, in a substantial part motivated by little more than outright anger and destructiveness. Many, indeed the overwhelming majority of people directly harmed by the riots were by any sensible standard innocent victims. And no sensible theory of political activism can really conclude that indiscriminate smashing of stuff is going to get you much of anywhere.\\\
All of which said, in practice there is something grimly inevitable about riots -- [[PowderKegCrowd a toxic mixture of poverty, degradation, and summer heat that periodically and predictably combusts.]] 58% of those arrested in connection with the riots came from the poorest 20% of areas of England. This fact speaks volumes about the causes of the riots. And perhaps more to the point, it is not necessarily reasonable to expect people’s howl of outrage at the apparent and hopeless dead end that is their life to be orderly and productive."''
-->--'''[[http://www.philipsandifer.com/2014/07/build-high-for-happiness-night-terrors.html Phil Sandifer]]''' on the 2011 England riots

-->''The Frenchman came to remove our fetters. But he [[{{Plunder}} took our boots]] instead.''
-->Polish peasants in the path of the armies of NapoleonBonaparte.
-->from ''1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow'' by Adam Zamoyski.

->''"Revolution is not a tea party."''