The Revolution Is Not On The Internet

Gil Scott-Heron wrote a powerful poem in 1970, and recorded it into a song – ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, during the Black Power Movement. Link - shorturl.at/begHU

Some references used will send us down wonderful rabbit holes. I went down a few myself, and got curious about how a modern-day version would look like.

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The revolution is not on the internet; the revolution isn't in our screens
It isn't on our social media feeds or in the subsequent insecurities we breed
It isn't in our endless video streams on leading better lives,
when we aren't even our best selves in airport lines.
It isn't in the sweeping changes we make, on a daily basis.
It isn't in our hashtag-activism or our loose attempts at hipster-minimalism.

It's in refraining from speaking when we don't have things to say.
It's in the values we airbrush only to stay in the game another day.
It's in every statement we say first and think next,
in every signal we jump, in every corner we cut,
to get to a place in life, only to tell ourselves ...'
... 'Not good enough'.

The revolution, however, is not for everyone.
It is far behind and off-centre for someone without an education,
for which they bear no responsibility.
History, and how we remember it, will point elsewhere.

For those that lucked out in the 'coin-toss',
our education should reflect in everything we do.
And not in the entitlement that comes with the territory.

It should reflect in the lifetime between a stimulus and our response, and what we do in 'that' lifetime, every time.

We have forgotten what it is to be discerning, with things big and small.
Ever wonder why we no longer call the TV an idiot box?

The Revolution Is Not On The Internet.