Revolutionary Questions

 The only thing more vast than the universe is my own ignorance.

The depths and tints of my ignorance are unlit and unfathomable. Often, when I learn something new, it takes months of me sitting in the warm lamplight of that novel knowledge to realize how long I’ve been oblivious to this now obvious nugget of data. How could I have ambled for so long in the dark, convinced I walked the line of truth and held the torch of enlightenment, when I was actually ricocheting off unnoticed walls and traveling nowhere in obtuse circles?

I’d like to share a firework producing epiphany that recently exploded in my cavern of ignorance. Why? Honestly, I think it will help my flickering candle of understanding from being nonchalantly snuffed out. Knowledge gained but unshared is a spark without tinder and damn if it isn’t cold and dark in here.

While listening to the podcast “Revolutions” by Mike Duncan, I kept hearing him talk about two persistent dilemmas that revolutionaries have faced through history: the political question and the social question. As I dimly understand the conundrum, some folks are fired up to answer only one of these questions (usually if they only answer one, it’s the political question), while others feel the burning need to answer both.

The political question is: how should the government be constructed, and what rights should citizens have? The social question is: what resources are owed to citizens? Unsurprisingly, people tend to answer these questions in ways that they think would most benefit themselves. Come to think of it, people tend to answer all questions with their self interest front and center, but I will let that cynical white rabbit run down its own particular tangential hole. For now what raises the hare of my curiosity here is to merely notice the massive shadows that these two questions cast through the entirety of human history.

Many of the revolutionaries who answer the political question want to shine a light on: freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the right to vote, a representative government, the rule of law, and the right to private property. Folks who answer the political question this way are classical liberals. To be fair, there are a thousand different shades of liberals. Some want the right to vote to be limited to people who pay over a certain amount in taxes. Some want a constitutional monarchy that keeps a king in nominal or actual charge of the government. Some want an official state religion. Another thing to note is that as revolutionary actors, liberals of all casts are usually well educated, land owning, and fairly wealthy.

Revolutionaries who want to answer the social question span a much foggier chasm. They want to highlight people’s basic needs: food, shelter, education, healthcare, and clothing for all. People who answer the social question this way are radicals. Like liberals, they come in a thousand hues. Some want these needs delivered through guaranteed work. Others prefer worker owned cooperatives. All radicals share the notion that guaranteeing things like representative government or freedom of assembly is meaningless if there isn’t enough to eat and you don’t have a roof over your head. They think that only answering the political question alone is a mistake.

So what is to be done? As usual, people will tend to answer that question in a way that fits with what they already believe. Come to think of it, people tend to answer all questions that way. Given that I believe questions are more interesting than answers, it’s a good thing there’s still an infinite quantity of my own ignorance to plumb.