MetaFilter posts tagged with Revolution

The revolution will not be [make your own joke here].

fiercecupcake — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:01:06 -0800

We think it’s normal to work all day every day at a dead-end job. It’s normal to fight with our spouses and our children. It’s normal to eat and drink and drug ourselves to escape, to veg out and stare at a screen for hours a day just to dull the pain. It’s normal to hate our lives and be miserable, it’s normal to be lonely, it’s normal to feel hollow. The Freak Revolution Manifesto.

Happy 40th

Twang — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:11:20 -0800

"Aberrant behavior had nothing to do with wearing love beads (59%), believing in Flower Power (64%), going to a "Be-In" (58%), or flashing the peace sign to complete strangers (81%) -- maybe only a sublime silliness..." -- Rex Weiner

"Forty years after the summer of '69, when a three-day festival of Peace, Love and Music in a muddy New York State pasture celebrated youthful ideals, isn't it high time we Americans face the truth that the ideals of the Woodstock Generation -- ideals once widely mocked, attacked and officially repressed -- have pretty much won the day? ... "The truly aberrant behavior belonged to their tormentors, those flag-waving ranks of ideologues, staunch segregationists, rabid commie-hunters and free-speech-smothering censors, bent on preserving their own quaint period of privilege, even if it meant radical measures. They were the un-Americans, the subversives undermining the principles that make America great, refusing to rise to the challenges set forth by our elite, long-haired Founding Fathers...."

Iran and the West

semmi — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:03:40 -0800

Three part BBC documentary analyzes and documents the revolution and the long struggle of Iran and the West to come together ever since the revolution. The documentary shows interviews with a wide range of world leaders who reveal the inner dealings of all governing adminstrations from the past thirty years, both from within Iran’s own adminstration and from the Western counterparts.

Up On The Roof

msalt — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:31:22 -0800

Hello, New York! New York, wake up you f*ckers! Free Music! Free Love! In 1968, two years before those other guys, Jefferson Airplane played their apocalyptic psychedelia from a NYC rooftop, before police shut them down. Filmed (staged?) by Jean-Luc Godard. The song is "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" from "After Bathing at Baxter's" (1967). Amazingly, this was their single which reached #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #24 on the Cash Box Top 100. Filmed for Godard's project "One A.M." aka "One American Movie", which was abandoned and completed four years later by D.A. Pennebaker -- with additional "making of" footage -- as "One P.M." aka "One Parallel Movie." IMDB The film is a fascinating, exasperating mess, featuring Tom Hayden, Eldridge Cleaver (just before he fled the country), Amiri Baraka, Rip Torn, Carol Bellamy, LeRoi Jones and Godard himself. An "American Indian" picks up a tape recorder and spouts/mimics the radical speech on it, etc. The NYT reviewer wrote at the time: "I don't know why "One A.M." was abandoned. There has been talk of Godard's failure to understand the nature of the movement in America. But after looking at the quality of the film work in "One P.M." it seems to me that the reason could quite properly have been despair." One P.M. -- Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10

Everyone agrees. It's about to explode.

jrb223 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:14:52 -0800

The Coming Insurrection (pdf) (in French) by the Invisible Committee. Composed following the 2005 riots in France, The Coming Insurrection predicts the collapse of capitalism and has been described as a manual for revolution. It is also at the center of the trial of the 'Tarnac 9,' a group of anarcho-autonomists (believed to be the Invisible Committee) arrested on terrorism charges for allegedly sabotaging train lines. Three were released in December, while their alleged leader, Julien Coupat, was released on bail after 6 months imprisonment in May. This past June saw the ‘official’ launch of the English translation in New York. The New York Times seems bemused, but Glenn Beck seems pretty worried…

in a democracy, the ordinary citizen is effectively a king, but a king in a constitutional democracy, a king whose decisions are merely formal

blasdelf — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:23:51 -0800

Berlusconi in Tehran by Slavoj Žižek in the London Review of Books

The Tragic Face of the Iranian Revolution

orville sash — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 18:18:30 -0800

Disturbing video of a young Iranian woman shot and dying in the streets of Tehran has surfaced on the internet (extremely graphic, NSFW, requires youtube login). Known only as "Neda" in the video, she has been identified by subsequent reports as a 16-year-old student named Neda Soltani. Supporters of the Iranian opposition are saying that she is the face of the struggle, and that this video galvanizes the opposition movement. As of this writing, the authenticity of the video has not been conclusively determined, and a small but vocal minority on the internet are decrying it as a fake.

A brief history of modern Iran

billysumday — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:06:58 -0800

As the world watches the conflict in Iran unfold, many commentators have tried to make a connection between the current protests and either the coup of 1953 or the revolution of 1979. But what do we know of the history of that country and how well do we know its leaders? Some of the major political players who have dominated the trajectory of the recent history of Iran include Mohammed Mossadegh, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and Mir-Hossein Mousavi. All links above are to Wikipedia pages. For more extensive articles and information, check below the fold. In 1953, Mohammed Mossadegh, the elected leader of Iran, was deposed in a military coup orchestrated by the United States and the UK. This exhaustive collection of material assembled by the New York Times, entitled "The Central Intelligence Agency's secret history of its covert operation to overthrow Iran's government in 1953," offers an inside look at how the agency stumbled into success, despite a series of mishaps that derailed its original plans. Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist. Mossadegh was replaced by The Shah, who ruled until 1979. Here is a fascinating 5 part BBC documentary entitled "The Last Shah of Iran." And here is a fantastic and comprehensive 1978 New Yorker article that details the growing opposition to the Shah in Iran during the late 70s, the failures of The Shah during his quarter century reign, and the rise of Khomeini. Excerpt: [The economist went on to talk about the religious revival. “I was very active in politics during my high-school years,” he said. “At that time—the early nineteen-fifties—there were only two important groups: the Communist, or Tudeh, Party, and the National Front—which included the Pan-Iranians, who wanted to take over parts of Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan. The young had absolutely no interest in religion. After that, the political situation calmed down. There was a brief revival of politics in 1961 and 1962, when Ali Amini came to office as Prime Minister. He started the land reform that the Shah later claimed as his own. The Tudeh Party was dead then, but the National Front was strong. The religious people didn’t count. Khomeini became important only after he was driven into exile by the Shah. The Shah’s father, Reza Shah, had been very successful in fighting the mullahs. He made a direct assault on the clergy—forcing women to take off veils, riding into the shrines and beating the mullahs. He had public sympathy, because then the clergy were corrupt and wealthy. They were hated by everybody. Now they have lost their lands and the religious foundations. The mullahs have been purified. They have the power of poverty.”] Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rose to the position of Supreme Leader after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. Last year, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace put together this 30-page dossier on the elusive and powerful mullah entitled, Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran's Most Powerful Leader. To access the report, click on the "Full Text" icon near the top of the page to get a complete PDF. And in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President of Iran. Presenting himself as humble, soft spoken, and extremely religious, he was educated as an engineer and fought in the Iran-Iraq War. A product of the revolution of 1979, Ahmadinejad believes in the "pure life" of Islam and rejects what he considers the corrupting influences of Western culture. This recent New Yorker article is both a profile of Ahmadinejad and a comprehensive look at the upcoming (now dated, obviously) elections. The article discusses, among others, former President Khatami and the reformist challenger to Ahmadinejad, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who is referred to in the article as "The Persian Cincinnatus." Other fantastic archived articles from the New Yorker regarding Iran: The Rationalist A dissident economist’s attempts to reform the revolution. an article about Mohammad Tabibian by Laura Secor, February 2, 2009 Fugitives Young Iranians confront the collapse of the reform movement. by Laura Secor November 21, 2005 - written in the aftermath of the 2005 elections, it discusses Ahmadinejad Shadow Land Who’s winning the fight for Iran’s future? by Joe Klein February 18, 2002

The right kind of meddlers

Uppity Pigeon #2 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:03:44 -0800

Although in many ways a regional conflict, the American Revolution had an ideological dimension that attracted many non-Americans to the conflict, from the Polish revolutionary Tadeusz Kościuszko to the French aristocrat marquis de Lafayette.

When Steam Wasn't Punk.

The Whelk — Tue, 19 May 2009 11:41:54 -0800

The Brazen Android by William Douglas O'Connor, is a 19th century science fiction story based on the myth of the Brazen Head, a steam-powered head that told fortunes. It's available as an audio book from the Internet Archives. (Via)

The Singing Revolution

Effigy2000 — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:16:36 -0800

Some revolutions are about hate. Others are about revenge. But there was at least one that was about hope and music. The Singing Revolution is the story of how hope and music saved a nation. After World War II the Baltic States had been fully incorporated into the USSR after military occupation and annexation in 1940. Many years later in 1985, hoping to stimulate the failing Soviet economy and encourage productivity, particularly in the areas of consumer goods, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced "glasnost", which rescinded the limitations on political freedoms. This gave rise to huge problems in the Baltic States, which had been occupied unlawfully in the build-up to war in the 1940s. From 1987, a cycle of mass demonstrations featuring spontaneous singing eventually collected 300,000 Estonians in Tallinn to sing national songs and hymns that were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation.

"We sang all night and everybody went home early in the morning. It was emotionally so strong that the next day there were even more people. The day after, there were even more people. People took out their hidden flags. They had these flags hidden for 50 years and now they took these out and started to wave them.”
Artur Talvik, participant.

These gatherings helped unite the Estonian people, ignited a renewed wave of passion for their national identity and furthered the country's desire for freedom. In September of 1988, 300,000 Estonians gathered at the Lauluvaljak to continue their protest and to hear Trivimi Velliste, an historian who later served as the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, make the first public demand for independence. The Singing Revolution, as it later became known, lasted over four years, with various protests, rock concerts and acts of defiance. In 1991, as Soviet tanks attempted to stop the progress towards independence, the Estonian Supreme Soviet together with the Congress of Estonia proclaimed the restoration of the independent state of Estonia and repudiated Soviet legislation. People acted as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks. Through these actions Estonia regained its independence without any bloodshed.

Revolution in Moldova

vkxmai — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:24:09 -0800

Following the 5 April parliamentary election results in the Republic of Moldova, in which the Partidul Comuniștilor din Republica Moldova won nearly 50% of the vote, thousands of young people began a series of protests largely organized through Twitter, text messaging, and FaceBook. The protests quickly reached a boiling point early today, when Parliament was stormed. Much of the coverage in the European press is limited to Romanian-language reporting. Some of the most compelling imagery and video clips, however, speak for themselves. Smaller groups of people across Romania, including Bucharest, have shown their support for the anti-communist protests in Basarabia, as the Republic of Moldova is often referred to in Romanian. Recent reports have also indicated that buses carrying supporters from Romania into Moldova, as well as Moldovans attempting to enter the capital, Chișinau, are being turned away. Moldova’s current president, Vladimir Voronin, believes that there was an attempted coup d’état. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, has also weighed in on the events. The Eurasia Daily Monitor offers insightful coverage and opinion pieces on the politics of the region. The wikipedia article on the Republic of Moldova, despite arguments over the official language of Moldova and recent nomenklatura changes by the Voronin government, is quite in-depth. The article on the breakaway region of Transnistria is also useful for understanding the Russian response to the recent events.

A Quiet Revolution Grows in the Muslim World

nooneyouknow — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:15:33 -0800

A Quiet Revolution Grows in the Muslim World "In many of the scores of countries that are predominantly Muslim, the latest generation of activists is redefining society in novel ways. This new soft revolution is distinct from three earlier waves of change--the Islamic revival of the 1970s, the rise of extremism in the 1980s and the growth of Muslim political parties in the 1990s. Today's revolution is more vibrantly Islamic than ever. Yet it is also decidedly antijihadist and ambivalent about Islamist political parties. Culturally, it is deeply conservative, but its goal is to adapt to the 21st century. Politically, it rejects secularism and Westernization but craves changes compatible with modern global trends. The soft revolution is more about groping for identity and direction than expressing piety. The new revolutionaries are synthesizing Koranic values with the ways of life spawned by the Internet, satellite television and Facebook. For them, Islam, you might say, is the path to change rather than the goal itself."

The "Holy Grail" of Beatles Outakes

gfrobe — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:16:06 -0800

"Take 20" of the Beatles'"Revolution 1" has found its way online. Although the authenticity of the online leak is still to be officially confirmed, the 10 minute recording has been previously documented by Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn and appears to be the gap between the White Album's "Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9".

Looking back

Abiezer — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:33:07 -0800

Khomeini and the revolution A photo-essay. "I have a 30-year-old book of photographs of the revolution by a photographer named Hatami. I thought it would be interesting to reproduce them for the 30th anniversary of the revolution. I paid my nephew Nico $20 to scan the entire book."

Party like it's 1979.

gman — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 17:38:06 -0800

Al Jazeera presents I Knew Khomeini (Part 1 2) and I Knew the Shah (Part 1 2).

Chinese Art

chuckdarwin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:59:29 -0800

The Great Chinese Art Revolution is a documentary exploring how Chinese art has become a sought-after commodity on the international market. Suppressed and co-opted by Mao, art in China was, for a long time, a subversive expression of discontent, starting with the Star(s) Group in 1979 and continuing with the "cynical realism" of the exiled artists of the 90s. Once considered off-track and exotic, contemporary Chinese art has arguably achieved a peak, selling for millions at auctions across the world. In a time of great change, as China struggles to balance capitalism with communism, a new wave of modern art has found its voice. The film features leading artists discussing their work, including Ai Weiwei: widely regarded as China's father of conceptual art and one of the designers behind Beijing's Olympic stadium, The Bird's Nest; and Zhang Xiaogang - possibly the best known and most collected of his generation. The film's selling point is simply the art itself: a cavalcade of vivid, otherworldly images that will be new to many viewers.

Spontaneous rebellion alone is not sufficient.

divabat — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:52:44 -0800

The Revolutionary Pleasure of Thinking for Yourself

El Comandante Americano

mrducts — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:10:24 -0800

William Alexander Morgan: The improbable story of how a high school dropout, ex-con, ranch hand, gambling enforcer, mafia gunrunner and circus fire eater from Ohio, became one of the top leaders in Castro’s revolutionary army (pops), only to be executed as a traitor after the revolution.

American for a Day

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:09:10 -0800

Canadian historian Rob MacDougall, on how Americans present movements for social change as the self-evident intentions of the nation's founders:

"[Martin Luther] King went on: 'When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note … a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' And here Sancho [Panza] or Sacvan [Bercovitch] whispers to the guy standing next to him, 'Were they? Really? If we went back in time and asked the architects of the republic–Jefferson and Madison and Washington and the rest–did you mean for this to apply to your slaves too, would they agree? … Because it would have saved a lot of trouble if they’d spelled all this out in 1789.'"

(via)

Orangutan hunting fish with spear

Brandon Blatcher — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:05:34 -0800

Yes, hoomon, we cans.

The Weather Underground

empath — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:30:06 -0800

Before it was a website, the Weather Underground[google video, 90 mins] was an off-shoot militant wing of the Students for a Democratic Society. It was responsible for a series of bombings of government buildings, banks and corporate HQ's, as well as Timothy Leary's breakout from prison. They eventually turned themselves in, but few were convicted of any crime, due to misconduct by federal authorities tasked with investigating them. [previously]

The Iron Heel

finite — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:17:03 -0800

The Iron Heel, published a century ago this year, is a novel by Jack London about socialist revolution in the United States. It is set mostly between 1912 and 1932, with a foreword and numerous footnotes written from the point of view of a historian who has just discovered the manuscript some 700 years later. Here is an excerpt (which is printed on the back cover of some editions) from chapter five:

"This, then, is our answer. We have no words to waste on you. When you reach out your vaunted strong hands for our palaces and purpled ease, we will show you what strength is. In roar of shell and shrapnel and in whine of machine-guns will our answer be couched. We will grind you revolutionists down under our heel, and we shall walk upon your faces. The world is ours, we are its lords, and ours it shall remain. As for the host of labor, it has been in the dirt since history began, and I read history aright. And in the dirt it shall remain so long as I and mine and those that come after us have the power. There is the word. It is the king of words--Power. Not God, not Mammon, but Power. Pour it over your tongue till it tingles with it. Power."

A coup has taken place

augustweed — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:54:48 -0800

Naomi Wolf: "A coup has taken place." An interview with Naomi Wolf author of "Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries" given October 4, 2008 on Mind Over Matters, KEXP 90.3 FM Seattle

DEAR COMRADE!

tellurian — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:38:16 -0800

Soviet Music "You are browsing a resource which is devoted first of all to the history and culture of the Soviet Union, the country which the West for a long time usually named as "The Empire of Evil", the country to which some people in the West perceive as "something big and snowy". I offer you to try to look outside the frames of usual stereotypes, to try to understand life of a unique country, with its interesting history, beautiful culture and miraculous relations between people. The music submitted on this site - is an evident sample of a totally new culture, which completely differs from all that, with what Hollywood and MTV supply us so much. This culture, being free from the cult of money, platitude, violence and sex, was urged to not indulge low bents of a human soul but to help the person to become culturally enriched and to grow above himself." I am liking for one "To be first in labour and in fight you should be a sportsman" [this link can break any second].