On Revolution

Zamyatin wrote "...and if the world is to be kindled into youth again, it must be set on fire". Revolution can not be creeping and quiet, in order for it to inspire real change it must be an explosion. Of ideas, of words, of actions. In every generation, there is the heart of a revolution. It is not the crazy "anarchists" and "heretics" challenging the system which should scare us, it is the moment in which they stop. The biggest danger for a society is stagnation; it is in stagnation that we stop noticing the flaws and begin blindly accepting what life throws at us.

I am not an advocater of utopia; human nature is not made to fit into that perfect picture. Rather, it is wild and ever evolving. One person's utopia, one generation's utopia or indeed, one culture's utopia, is another's hell. Instead, "revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite". It is constant.

It is in our nature to question everything. To refuse to accept at face value what we are told or what we are given. To carve our own destinies and never accept that something is impossible. Moreover, we should not just be seeking to revolutionize the abstract society, but ourselves as individuals. To better ourselves both inside and out.

The aim of this blog is to do just that.

"The law of revolution is red, fiery, deadly; but this death means the birth of new life, a new star" (Zamyatin).

Carrie

Sources

1. Ginsburg, Mirra (1970) A Soviet Heretic: Essays by Yevgeny Zamyatin London: University of Chicago Press