The Modern Revolutionary
A 100 years ago the British empire had tons of them, In 2021 it is harder to point out who is a revolutionary.
The British empire was at its peak, a trailer of America’s might was displayed in the first world war and India existed as prized possession of the crown. It was a year when Churchill became responsible for British colonies, Hitler became the leader of the Nazi party, FDR got polio and Bhagat Singh got inspired as a 13 year old boy.
The early decline of the British rule started then, Britain had to grant Independence to the Irish, over a 1.5 million brits were unemployed, businesses were demanded cheaper labor and unions demanded wartime wages. Due to the war, the U.K. held onto its position at the cost of great debt and starting leaving an economic vacuum in the world that would be filled by the U.S. and thus decline of the sterling as the reserve currency. Sadly, this situation is similar to the USA today, mounting debt, questioned currency, rising unemployment as an aftermath of a medical calamity.
The great differentiator today is Technology. It has enabled a celebrity financed his way to presidency with no prior experience. Bernie sanders could raise millions from small donations, a group of people on reddit brought down a hedge fund by aligning themselves. The internet is today’s great equalizer.
In 1921 the most powerful man to walk the earth, George V would have read the same newspaper by the same journalist as the revolutionary in his Indian jail cell. Back then, the greatest act of flagrancy and revolution was to print and distribute the widespread ideals and beliefs in the hope for a better future towards complete freedom. Words that conveyed the ideals from printing press of a revolutionary against the government was possible. The greatest act was to inform yourself completely, choose the words you read and march to protest.
Akin to 1921, a century later, I own an identical iPhone as the POTUS does. Not just the newspaper, Today I have the capacity to trade valuable tokens, independent of governmental control and function as a corporation without oversight. The rules are different, the game is different. The internet is the great equalizer and it will deliver on the promise of true equality.
Using the internet today ordinary people like you and me can not just communicate but can build entities capable to function like a corporation, issue currency and broadcast sounds, pictures and film akin to the most sophisticated of equipment out there. It is not fantasy to argue that to we will soon allow individuals to start nation states from their devices (like Balaji suggests). We must remind ourselves of this power everyday.
Due to the internet, the delivery on the promise of Freedom of arbitrage, Equality of opportunity and Justice for all around the globe is in reach like never before. This is the era when it has become revolutionary, to build for a more prosperous tomorrow, build online and democratize access to what you create.
Yet, the inventor of the mRNA vaccines Dr.Robert Malone is not mentioned everyday and everywhere. The founders of Moderna, the team at Pfizer and the various people who have built the corporations that have helped us fight a virus that potentially might have been a bioweapon are not our heros? A crisis that originated from a country that is the biggest producer of goods, is documented to committing genocide and we do not hail the people who helped us fight back with the highest of regard?
The openness of society and equal access to information takes the monopoly to revolt away from protests and riots and presents an alternative. It poses a greater challenge to them to ensure a truly open mind that extends a compassionate hand to another. It entails shunning the lust to cast capitalism as the root of all evil. Alongside welcoming immigrants, sharing science, making things open sourced, rewarding and glorifying those who build and hold in high regard the positive impact made on our lives.
We must remember that a century ago, at the start of the roaring 20s, Russia was in Famine and the Communist revolution was underway. The Weimar German Republic was set on a course of hyperinflation. Those are two important lessons to us that a poor and hungry man will exchange his liberty and freedom for a ration of bread.
What keeps us from falling there are the people who have invented, built and to the dismay of some, capitalized the technology to enable greater reach.
This is why the ideas to share prosperity, the ideas that auto-distribute the fruits of labor must win. Not by a monopoly of violence, not by a manifesto ideals that forces equity in exchange of liberty. Instead by undertaking the task to build. To welcome those who build towards a more connected world, those who share product and prosperity with us all, for those who believe to win and help win. This is why we must embrace the means to create technology and hail these people as our revolutionaries.
Inventors enable us today to build organizations on the cloud identical in functioning and status quo to that of nations, an unimaginable feat for a revolutionary living under the British Raj in 1921. People who have made this possible are heros. The technologists, scientists, knowledge workers and capitalists who share, and create more prosperous tomorrow for all and usher us towards a better tomorrow are the modern revolutionaries.
