Working in Tandem

To be frank, I think fortuitous and organized action coalesce to create a revolution. Much of the reason why the Haitian Revolution was successful was because it was a mixture of meticulous planning and spontaneous fervor to revolt. Kurzman believes in the principal that revolution created the revolution while Camus argues that ideology provokes a revolution and that is an irresistible human compulsion, but the most potent revolutions finds a way to intertwine both practices.

A prime example to demonstrate how revolutions combine the element of accident and fate is how the moment of viability comes into fruition in a revolution. The moment of viability is the quintessential moment for the start of a revolution. It can be unforeseen and unpredictable, but not always. Planning implants the ideology of revolution that Camus contests for. It is done covertly and subversively and creates the causal explanation that there is a run up to the moment of viability. The run up to viability is the combination of ideology and restoring human dignity to avoid haphazard, coincidental moments of synced collective action. The Haitian Revolution and #MeToo movement became feasible because there were preceding incidents––a run-up to viability––whether with slave masters or sexual assault allegations, which began to build tension and anger among victims. These preceding events became the run up to viability where victims vehemently acted upon impulse which coincides with the causal explanation for coincidental revolutions.

1 thought on “Working in Tandem

  1. Ella,
    I totally agree with you. Revolutions are both inevitable and random. Taking your example of Haiti. Yes it was a surprise to the French plantation owners when the men they once trusted as loyal turned on them and their families. However, the cogs of the uprising had be silently turning for quite a while. Certainly that moment of viability is a shock or seemingly random, but there has to be a events that then allow for that extraordinary moment and thus revolution.

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