The Revolution Already Happened Without You

A Revolution took place this past year, finalized with the swearing in of the 46th President of the United States on January 20th, 2021. It was not the Revolution that you think it was or the revolution you had hoped it would be. Many had thought that the revolution was Trump himself, saving America from the global establishment that threatens liberty across the globe. In reality, Trump was the last of the old world, a desperate counterpunch from a cornered idea of freedom in an attempt to hold off a Revolution that has been decades in the making. That Revolution delivered its final blow, entrenching a new set of elites, backed by an technocratic oligarchy with an aim of ultimate authoritarian control.

“A Revolution is one set of Elites replacing another – are you prepared and do you have the ability to be the new Elites?”

The above quote is taken from a fellow member of a men’s fitness Telegram group to which I belong. I don’t know the man who said it, or if it is an original idea or taken from someone else, but his words struck something in me when I read them this morning. Indeed, a revolution has taken place, a new elite has taken power, and you are probably not one of them. If you disagree with this new establishment and harbor any antiquated notions of freedom of speech, of faith, of association, or self-defense, you are not only not part of the new in-group, but have earned the title of “the other.” History shows us what happens to “the other.”

History also shows us very few successful slave revolts. Perhaps one of the most famous, led by Spartacus against Rome in the 1st Century B.C., lasted a few years until it was crushed by the Roman legions and six thousand survivors were crucified along the Appian Way leading into Rome.

The original American Revolution that led to the founding of the United States was not a slave revolt, but a movement driven by elite men, inspired not by self-important status but by the mindset that all men are equal under God and should live freely in that manner. They were elite in that they were scholars, soldiers, and businessmen who pushed themselves to that status by their endeavors.

The ancient Greeks had similar ideas of freedom and liberty as modern Americans, yet with a catch. Freedom was not simply the ability to do what one pleases without restraint, but the ability to do what one desires within self-imposed limits of moral virtue. In America today, one is free to do whatever makes one happy, even if it imposes long term harm on the body, mind, or spirit. To the Greeks, that is not freedom, but slavery. For Christians, the Apostle Paul would say that it is slavery to sin.

I look around the country, and at myself, and ask if those of us who now find ourselves as outsiders of the new establishment and clamor for the freedoms of old are worthy of the elite status we so desire? Are we worthy of the liberties we think we have lost? Or are we too slaves to the vices inherent in our infinite freedoms?

If there is ever any desire for a new revolution to push back against our freshly victorious authoritarian masters, a new class of freedom loving men and women with passions tamed by discipline and virtue must rise. This new class must elevate their minds, bodies, and souls to an elite status worthy of the freedoms we have been gifted by God. Only then can we bring about any kind of lasting revolution.