The Internet Has No Death Squads

I'm beginning to think that revolutionaries don't matter. Or that they shouldn't. When revolutionaries matter, bad things happen. The revolutions they matterto are fragile, because they can end with just one government ordered assassination. They take on an inquisitional character, as the person becomes more important than the cause, and uses the cause to do things in their interests rather than the interests of the cause.

Successful revolutions are usually independent of any one individual. The internet revolution, for example. Now that it's off the ground, it can't be stopped, because there are so many people involved with it. This is more a feature of technological revolutions than political ones, but political revolutionaries should take note of it. Getting people on board with the revolution itself, rather than onboard with you, personally, can be an extremely effective tactic.

Not least because it means that if Things Go Wrong, at least people will be killing each other for the revolution, and not for you. Small consolation, sure -- but if you frame the rest of the revolution right, it also means that Things are a lot less likely to Go Wrong. And that's a big deal.