Integrity

I watched the film V for Vendetta the other day, (as recommended by Claire!) and was so struck by it I had to write a blog post about it. I'll start with this quote, from the letter which Evie finds in the hole in the wall, the emotiveness of it is simply stunning.

"Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us. But within that inch we are free."


It is such a poignant quote, and also meaningful to the Why Revolution campaign. Because by encouraging people to not just do good deeds that involve giving, or complimenting friends, but also to forgive or help someone who might have hurt you in the past, we are encouraging people to use their integrity.  It is something that we give up so freely, all of us have been in a situation where something bad is happening, yet we have not had the courage to stand up for what we believe in. In class when the popular kids were making the class geek's life a misery, when we hear someone talking about someone behind their back... all the times we have seen unpleasant things happen and done nothing, we have let our integrity be bought by those we see as cleverer, more popular, more fashionable... but as the old saying goes 'there are three types of people in the world. Those those do evil things, those who see evil but do nothing, and those who stand up and be counted'. And when we are sitting on the bus seeing the bigger, louder kids picking on the nerdy kid, we have to think 'Which type of person am I and which do I want to be? Because I have been that nerdy, unpopular kid getting picked on on the bus, and I can tell you from my heart, just one person saying "hey cut it out, leave her alone" makes an ocean of difference.


I recently watched a program recently about Cyntoia Brown, a young woman who committed murder at just 15, and is serving a life sentence in Tennessee women's prison. She had had a harder life than any of us can even begin to contemplate, fell into drugs, crime, and prostitution, eventually shooting a 42 year old man who had picked her up for sex, mistakenly believing he was reaching for a gun. She received little education, but is unusually intelligent and insightful. She described her integrity as being 'Like a jewel which has been thrown far out to sea, and I guess I have to search until I find it again". No matter what we have done, no matter how many times we have seen something happening that we disagree with and done nothing, there is always a way to find that jewel. I agree with the quote from V for Vendetta, except for one point, we do not sell our integrity, but we let  the opinions of others hide it, we let it be thrown out to sea, but equally, every single one of us is capable of finding that precious jewel again, if we believe in  ourselves. 

Cult or Culture?

I was inspired to write this post by a certain person... Many of the why revolutionaries will know who he is... who has accused me of starting a cult. I though I would use the blog to set the record straight, and to try and explain the why revolution a little more, to those of you who might be struggling to get your head around it.

According to Wikipedia (fountain of all knowledge..mostly) A cult is "a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre". Whilst I, as a founding member of the why revolution, may say we are neither, in actual fact, because of the nature of this movement, which is based on equality, my opinion is no more or less valid than anyone else's. Whether you, like the person I was speaking to consider this a cult, depends very much on your outlook in life. For my part, [as concerns the first point about religion, I would say as I have said before, we are not a religious movement, we are not an anti religious movement, we are both and neither. I myself am a catholic. Whilst I am religious I chose not to show it by preaching ect, I do it by trying to be a good person, and to help others, so for me, the why revolution has a religious aspect, because it is my way of practising my beliefs. The Why Revolution's core message is treat others as you would like to be treated. And for me this is like love you neighbour. So for me this is a religious movement, but that is only on a personal level. Some people might argue that adds a cult- like aspect, but only as far as Christianity is considered a cult.


On the other side of the fence are atheists. Because this movement was designed a way for everyone to practice their beliefs, some of the non-believing members of the why revolution consider it a way for atheists to prove that human beings can make the world a better place, and can become more moral without religion, that this movement is their way of proving that we don't need a belief in God to be good. That is their personal truth, and that truth is no more or less correct than mine. It's simply a perspective. But on that score, it could be argued that the why revolution is the opposite of a cult, the antithesis, because cults entail belief in some higher power, and this could be described as the proof that this is not necessary any more. 


I personally consider the why revolution to be a symbol of young people's desire for a change in culture. Not a sub culture, because we are not working outside the system, we are working inside it, to change it for the better. 2012 is supposed to be a year of change, a year when something happens to society. There are some people who say 'nothing is going to happen, nothing will ever change' and there are other people who say 'something is going to happen in 2012. Because I am going to make it happen.' Why revolutionaries are the people who say 'I am going to make change happen'. There is no reason why we we cannot change culture, as long as everybody works together, because we, the teenagers who have started this movement, are the future, so why can the future not be ours?

WHY?

Why...?
Why are we doing this?
Why aren't we happy?
Why is stuff so difficult?
Why do we accept it?
Why can't we change?
WHY DO WE LET PEOPLE TELL US LIES?
WHY DON'T I KNOW WHAT TO DO?
WHY CAN'T WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER?
WHY SHOULD WE LET GOVERNMENTS CONTROL US?
WHY CAN'T WE CHANGE THE WORLD?

Kony 2012- Success or failure?

As I have been explaining to many of you 'Why Revolutionaries' about how we can use the Kony campaign, and it's successes and failures as a foundation for our own campaign, I thought it was about time I explained it to a wider audience. The Kony campaign, for those of you who don't know (which I rather suspect is not very many) was an international campaign led by American charity 'Invisible children'. The aim of the campaign was to bring to justice one Joseph Kony, a Ugandan war criminal accused of countless crimes. The campaign featured a video which was viewed 90 million times in it's first week. 3.5 million people signed a stop Kony petition. This was a campaign which caused millions of people to take a few minutes out of their day, to stop and think about how lucky they were to have a roof over their heads, to have an education, and not to live in fear of their lives. This was a movement which caused millions of people to work together for a common cause. And yet this campaign is viewed by most as a complete failure, a flop. Why?

Well what it all boils down to is the way that you look at success. Most people will set themselves one target, and say 'if I achieve that thing I am a success. If I do not I am a failure.'  Most people, especially in western society see success as very black and white, and I believe that this is the cause of much unhappiness. What we should try and do, a little more, is to view success as every shade of grey. So someone who sees only black and white will say 'If you did not catch Kony, then the campaign was utterly worthless. In fact, the people who work for invisible children should never have started it in the first place, because it was doomed to failure. HOWEVER if you see success in terms of shades of grey you might say 'Although Kony wasn't caught, millions of people doing something positive, even if that thing was just reposting a video, how can that be bad. People may have only spent half an hour watching the video, but it was half an hour doing something selfless'. The Kony campaign took many of us out of our cosy little lives, and got us thinking about being part of the wider world, about being part of something larger than just ourselves. We can't see the effect it had, yet that doesn't mean it didn't. You might say that the people who reposted the video were not real social activists, and were only doing it because their friends were doing it, which might be true in many cases. But that doesn't mean they didn't take something away from it. I am personally very very grateful to invisible children, because I believe what people will take away from this, not that they will all be magically transformed into saints, but that they will be more receptive to the idea of working with millions of other people for a common cause, that the Kony campaign taught people 'working together is fun'.

One of the main reason that the Kony campaign is called a failure is because the success (as I see it) was not tangible, not measurable. It's like a child who studies for two years for an exam, then is sick on the day, and the teacher saying 'because you do not have a grade you are a faliure. Unless you have the grades to prove you have an education then your education is worthless. But the girl has the knowledge, the same knowledge as someone with the grades, she just can't prove it. And this is like the Kony campaign. Just because we can't 'see' the positive effects cohesion, just because we can't see co-operation, doesn't mean they aren't there. And I believe the Kony campaign did make people more receptive to working together.

 Working together is the only real defence that most of us have against oppression. Without people working together, using social media, the Arab spring could not have happened, and whilst the problems in the middle east are far from solved, the Arab spring demonstrations helped ordinary people to regain a feeling of control over their lives. What the Kony Campaign has done is made each one of us realise, deep down, that we are not powerless. Kony made history, and every single person who took part was a part of that. If we continue to work together, to spread positive messages, by using Facebook, twitter, and word of mouth, who knows what a difference we might be able to make?    

Circles

What goes around comes around. When we talk through things in a circle we find the answer comes back to us in what other people say. The bonfire @ the kidneys just helped me see something's going right for a change; new people coming, good music, respect, understanding, dare I say love. It's good to feel people care, & are glad to see you. Now I'm getting ready to find the end of the rainbow circle, or perhaps it's the beginning.

The Why Revolution on Facebook!

Just to let you know... The why revolution has a Facebook page... http://www.facebook.com/indigowhyrevolution

The page is called indigo, please please like and comment, help us spread out message of respect, tolerance, equality, and 'treat others how you want to be treated'. Together we can shape a better future! 

So here is my third Why Revolution blog post, it's about time! I will start off by explaining how everything is progressing with the movement. We have had our initial meeting, which was really successful. We did two brainstorms on A1 paper, and came up with a tonne of ideas. We had 8 or 9 people there, which in anybody's books, is not a bad turnout! Unfortunately the majority of those people decided to bugger off back to uni before the next meeting. So the week after it was just me and Dot, (we started to come up with ideas for the constitution) And the week after it was just me and Becca. So a casual observer may think that the Why Revolution was over before it had begun. Not So. On Tuesday of this week I attended a 'course representatives' meeting at college, presided over by the principal of the college. Being the cheeky little person that I am, I used the 'any questions' bit at the end of the principal's talk to inform everyone about our initiative one, the day of kindness on the 21st of December. She was rather excited, and wants to make it a college-wide project; we soon hope to have posters up all around college, and to organise a talk about it in the student union. Thus the Why Revolution is gathering pace, first Banbury, then the world!!

I had wondered what the senior staff in the college would make of any kind of organisation with 'revolution' in the title, and Queenie, who is in charge of the student union, said one or two of the college staff were a bit wary of the idea. But as I explained to her then, and as I'm explaining to you now, the Why Revolution is not just some anti-authority, anti-establishment youth movement that flares up, annoys parents, teachers, and politicians, then fades into history. Because this is not about blindly following a crowd, or about fashion, but about changing ourselves, the way we treat other people, and about our willingness to co-operate with others. This is a personal movement, but one which involves us all working together, to create a feeling of cohesion, something that society has been losing for a while, with the rise of individualism and celebrity culture in western society. This is not a political movement, although we are revolutionaries, we are not rioters, we will make our mark by being a good example to others, not by throwing bricks through shop windows!!!

So our first initiative is to have one day, just one day in history where everybody does on kind thing that they would not ordinarily do. It's simple, childishly simple, yet sometimes it's the simplest ideas that are the most effective. Some people might only do it because there friends are doing it, but it doesn't matter, because they might decide that doing good makes them feel good, and might be worth trying again sometime. This idea is for everyone, but for people who go out of their way to help others everyday, this isn't going to be such a big deal. This day will be most useful to the people who are the most selfish, because it might be the first day of a new chapter in their lives, a chapter which replaces the word 'I' with 'We'

And lastly, I'd like to explain the Why Revolution by way of a metaphor, I've explained it this way to a few people. We are like a spark, the spark which lights a bonfire. Without a spark there is no fire, everybody is cold. But once the spark has been ignited it catches hold quickly and spreads, creating a warmth that everyone can enjoy. We have ignited the spark, the idea of a movement which anyone, atheist or Christian, Muslim or Hindu, black or white, can join with the some purpose of Making the world a better place. The other thing is though, once the fire is lit, no-one cares or remembers where the spark came from. Unlike the Kony campaign, this campaign is not about one figure head, it's about everyone. We are all spreading the fire, and the person who started it, has no intention of making themselves into a celebrity. Only to sit back and feel the heat of a warmer society.

SO WHAT IS THE ‘WHY REVOLUTION?’

The why revolution campaign is a personal and social movement looking at creating a more cohesive and harmonious society. Its aim is to encourage individuals to initiate positive social change by first re-evaluate their own behaviours and the way that they interact with those around them. Put simply, the main aim of the why revolution is to make the world a better place.

So what reason is there for a movement like this? I realise that the above statement sounds vague and almost impossible to achieve. So I will explain a little more. We are living in a world that has a multitude of problems; many of them have been caused by selfishness and greed. The idea of the Why Revolution is to create a network of people who are both religious and non-religious, who simply have a desire to live good, thoughtful lives.

The why revolution would represent an utter rejection of the self-serving attitudes of  our parents which caused the economic down turn, and caused us to pay £9000 a year to get  a degree. We tried the riots, and found that it had little effect. But if we work hard, to change people’s hearts and minds, by spreading the word, talking to people, networking, and trying to teach people about the values of the why revolution, we might reach, if not the rich of today, then perhaps the rich people of tomorrow, if not the politicians of today, then maybe those of the future . The main aim of this movement is to re-enforce and encourage people, especially the young (who are more likely to listen) to have more of a social conscience.

Becoming a member of the why revolution involves examining your conscience, and trying to decide how you could become a better person yourself, before you try and help anyone else. Basically the message behind the Michael Jackson song ‘Man in the Mirror’.

 One of the primary functions of the why revolution is to create a more cohesive society, and to encourage people to work together for common goals, as afore mentioned. One important goal is to create rapport between people who are spiritual, but may or may not believe in God. Contradictory as the idea of ‘spiritual atheism’ might sound, just because someone does not believe in a deity of any sort, does not mean that they can’t have an innate love of their fellow man, their spirituality comes from the human spirit. For too long have people seen those of different religions, or no religion seen each other as the enemy. For the world to move forward, people who are truly and genuinely spiritual need to stop seeing each other’s views as wrong, but just as different, and need to make a commitment to each other to stop judging, and to start working together. This is the way forward for mankind, not the see their religion or belief system as ‘the right one’ (even if they believe that science proves it is) but to see beyond that, to realise that we are still arguing is part of what is holding us back. There is nothing wrong with intellectual debate, but there is everything wrong with people who could, if they worked together, create a better society being stopped, or feeling that they don’t want to work with certain people because ‘they don’t believe in my God’ or ‘they follow a cult’.

THE WHY REVOLUTION MANIFESTO

We, the children are sick. Sick of the selfish society that we live in. Sick of a society where the only way we can get the education that we want is if we in debt ourselves for decades to people we have never met. Sick of the way we feel compelled to buy more and more because
we are told that it will make us happy. Sick of the way that the things we turn to for entertainment make us feel more and more insecure about ourselves. Society has been ruled for too long by a small, powerful, and rich elite who tell us they are acting in our interest, yet continue to make themselves ever richer and more powerful, to the detriment of everybody else; the poor, the sick, the young, and the very old. We have been lied to for so long, about so many things, and it's time we started doing something about it. Because we, the children, have had enough.

We are living in a world where more and more of us hunger after fame, yet those who find it often then find themselves quite alone, looked up to by all, but treated as an equal by none. Those who seek riches work harder and harder to achieve them, then find that they the long
hours, and stress have separated them from the people they love the most. We take exams that promise us success, yet we often find that the highly paid jobs we get as a result are the ones that bring our governments the most taxes, not the most happiness for ourselves.

We need to start looking at the world with different eyes. We all need to start thinking seriously about the kind of place we want the world of the 21st century, and beyond, to be. And If the way the world is going, is not the way we want it to continue, we need to act now. We need to stop buying things we don't really need, stop reading so many celebrity magazines, and start asking questions. Sooner or later the people in authority will have to listen to us, if there are enough voices, we will make ourselves heard.

2012 is supposed to be a year of change, a year in which something big happens to all of us. But instead of sitting and waiting for something to happen, like we have sat and waited for the powerful people in society to tell us what to do, we will make change happen ourselves.
We have the power to make 2012 the first year of the future that we want, one where people learn to co-operate more, to stop desperately seeking things like fame and money, that don't really matter. We will take control of our own lives, but use them to improve the lives of
others. If we all do the same we can turn around the mess that our parents and grandparents
have created, if we all try and see things for what they truly are.

It's not going to be easy persuading the world to change, but it can be done, if we work together.