I got an invite to join a “No Kings” protest in my neighborhood. In my neighborhood! My mind went to that Esurance commercial. “That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works.” There are already no kings in my neighborhood. The king will not be driving through. No one who knows the king will be driving through. None of the billionaires who made the king will be driving through. They are not here. They will never be here.
When they say one man can change the world, they’re not talking about one man standing in his driveway with a sign. Sadly, they’re not even talking about one man at his desk typing a blog post that four people will read.
Change is not made by a weekend march through your neighborhood or a protest at your state capitol on inauguration day. It is not made through inaction, like not shopping at Hobby Lobby or not eating Chick-fil-A. The world can only be changed through action. The scale of the impact will be directly related to the scale of the action. Need a pothole filled? That starts with petitioning the city and likely attending a few meetings. If you want to change the world, you have to get your hands dirty. You have to do the hard work. If you want your march to change the world, be prepared to be beaten, hosed and imprisoned when you reach your destination. Then stand up and do it again. John Lewis called that “good trouble.”
If the change you want is truly dramatic, may I interest you in a revolution?
You may definitely interest me in a revolution. I’m not going solo, but if the crowd is heading to the (figurative) Bastille, I’m in. If the mob is pulling billionaires from their beds in the dark of night, I will happily carry a torch and maybe even burn some stuff down. But if the crowd is just belly-aching to like-minded people in like-minded social feeds or dropping anonymous comments on news articles or holding silly signs by the stoplight at the edge of my neighborhood, have fun without me.
So, you say you want a revolution?
