Revolution of hope and change

Revolutions have always pushed hope for change, but carpe diem depended upon the ‘right’ day. "Audacity, always audacity and still more audacity!" was the slogan of Danton in the great French Revolution of 1790 and we know what that hope and change meant in France.

In 1905, Lenin hoped for change when he wrote: " At no other time are the mass of the people in a position to come forward so actively as creators of a new social order, as at a time of revolution.... At such times, the people are capable of performing miracles, ... It is essential that the leaders should advance their aims more comprehensively and boldly at such a time, so that their slogans shall always be in advance of the revolutionary initiative of the masses, serve as a beacon, reveal to them our democratic and socialist ideal."

Hope and change for Trotsky depended upon the ‘light cavalry’ that he described as the students and intelligentsia who make the first move in a revolution ( the Russian revolution of 1917). But "even the most heroic intelligentsia is nothing without the masses."

It was the proletariat ( in spite of experiencing a rise in living standards) which carried out the greatest general strike in history in France, May, 1968 hoping for change. It confirms the analysis of Marxism that the conditions for revolution are prepared not automatically by either an economic slump or an upswing, but by the ‘change’ from one epoch to another. An author of the this month of revolution said that when the strictures of life in capitalist society (the burning of cars in Paris, 1968) seem to be sundered, they (the rioters) have the scent of revolution in their nostrils and it smelt good.

Obama, Obama, Hope and change, the audacity to hope for change. The transformation of America, 2009 is being led by students, snobs, wealthy politicians, the media and the intelligentsia. Following Lenin’s method for revolution, ‘preparation, education and organization’ have been part of Obama’s community organization work, political campaign and Presidential agenda.

A writer in sync with the Communist ideology warns that "unless a systematic and unswerving plan for the conquest of power is prepared and carried out in good season, an ebb will inevitably set in." The government take-over of health care has lost momentum. Cap and trade has not been finalized. Protests rear their ugly head from companies that have already been nationalized. The Communists (and Shakespeare) know that when the moment for action comes it must be seized or revolutionary fervor will ebb. Is there hope for a change of direction in America?

A citizen doing her civic duty in July 2009, reported an apparent break-in and then received death threats from racists even though no skin color was mentioned in her 911 call. What kind of silent revolution is already taking place in America?