Give Me Liberty - Freeing Ourselves in the Twenty-first Century

by Gerry Spence

(excerpt from chapter 15)

The French novelist George Sand once commented,"No one makes a revolution by himself; and there are some revolutions.......which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand."Such is the way of the true revolution--when the man on the street, the worker, the housewife, the children in the schools, and at last, even the rich themselves become aware of the enslaving myths and the stultifying chains that dominate us, then the revolution will be upon us. Individual awareness is the first weapon of the revolution. Awareness seeds change. And the revolutions are the product of change, not the other way around. One cannot walk any distance without opening ones eyes in order to see the way. Change occurs in a nation of selves marching together, our eyes opened.I do not agree with Mao, who said, "A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another [emphasis added]." In America, the classes are classes of slaves. The racial strife is strife among the classes of slaves. The New Master is not a member of any class, since class implies membership in the human race.The revolution comes like the blooming of a field of wildflowers in the meadow, an individual bud at a time, until the whole field is afire with their blooming. The revolution comes through the blooming of awareness, one person at a time. And so the people ask, "How does awareness come about?" but I say, having asked the question, are we not aware of the way?