It’s hard to recognize a revolution when you were born in one and it’s all you know.
Some happen in a day; some take hundreds of years. Which one are we in the middle of?
The industrial revolution? When did it start? Did it end or will it ever? We keep adding chapters, steam, electricity, computers, AI — no one knows what’s next.
The American Revolution, when did it start, sometime around 1775. When did it end? What do you call an end? Cornwallis’ surrender, approving the Constitution, the end of the Confederacy, or is it still going on?
Thomas Jefferson believed that a small rebellion was sometimes necessary for the health of a republic. He also believed that a lack of rebellion could lead to the death of public liberty. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” He believed that a revolution every 20 years was needed, but then what defines a revolution? Is it the loss of blood?
The men we call founders were the oligarchs of their time, but refined, enlightened, in their ways. They all owned property, and many owned slaves, but they saw a vision of a better way where everyone could contribute their ideas, not just their sweat.
In our 250-year history, we have seen bloody revolutions and bloodless ones. Many were localized.
In 1828, Andrew Jackson, a rugged frontiersman and soldier, was elected and made some states’ rights changes in the normalcy. His most infamous act was to abandon any pretense of assimilation with the native Americans and forced many to move west. One might call that a second revolution.
Jackson refused to enforce the Supreme Court ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that recognized Cherokee sovereignty. He made an end to any efforts at Indian assimilation. Hardly any white people were affected. The Trail of Tears was a revolution to the thousands of “civilized tribe” Indians who marched 1,000 miles from green woodland to dry prairie Indian territory, now Oklahoma.
A more obvious revolution was started officially in 1862 when South Carolina militia fired on Fort Sumpter. Lincoln responded to preserve the Union and we engaged in the Civil War, sometimes called the second American revolution. Eleven southern states rebelled against what they considered loss of states’ rights. Exactly what states’ rights means is unclear, but it seems to apply to the ruling oligarchy, an old boy’s network of influential landowners, rather than the people collectively. The Union prevailed, and the Constitution was amended to better comply with the Declaration of Independence and its own preamble.
An uprising occurred in 1921. The Black Wall Street massacre was a 2-day-long Jim Crow terrorist oligarchy attack. Since the people affected were not white and not near the main centers of power, it was mostly ignored for 100 years. Fortunately, it lacked momentum.
World War II ended in 1945, the UN was founded, and the world entered a long term of general peace and prosperity.
Harry Truman started another chapter in the American revolution when he desegregated the U.S. armed forces. This was as close to a bloodless revolution as possible. Suddenly, a major institution where much decision making was race based had to learn a new way.
Presidents respected judicial decisions. It took time for the powers to adapt, but it created a model for further steps toward equality, school desegregation, voting rights and civil rights progress. America got involved in more and more foreign wars that dominated the news, but did not seem to have much relevance on main street, unless a protest aroused the police.
In 1991 the Soviet Union cracked; it looked like we were on the road to the promised land. Jan. 6, 2021, an unruly mob assaulted the U.S. Capitol, and nothing has been the same since. The guardians of truth were suddenly the enemies of the people. The civil servants, who kept things working that no one thinks about, until they stop, were discredited. Federal responsibilities were dumped on the individual states, some of which were still dominated by the traditional conservative oligarchy.
We are learning that our legal system has become an informal process to decide who can hire the most lawyers.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safetyand freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Feedback encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com really.
