Revolutio – Revolutionis: Into The Cycle

The etymology of the word revolution comes from the Latin word revolutio – revolutionis, which means to come back to the starting point, to make a rotation, to revolve, to turn. The first time the term was used it was employed to describe the rotation movement of heavenly bodies: the orbit of one body around another; the motion of a body (such as a planet or satellite) along a path around some point in space. It describes one full turn of this body. A complete revolution is therefore the moment in which the body ends up one rotation, coming back to the beginning to start a new cycle.

With time the word revolution assumed the actual common sense of a sudden, complete or marked change in something (such as an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed or a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, often accompanied by violence.)

When I first found out the existence of revolution in the world I thought: “Here I am, I want to be in it! I want to change this funking world! Let’s burn it down!”

My first revolutionary feeling was that I wanted everybody to have the same possibilities in life, to have similar material and spiritual conditions. Nevertheless, I quickly understood – by observation – that the world is limited and it does not have the resources to offer six billion people our actual lifestyle (my nice private house, my beloved car, my fundamental yearly flight for vacations, my super PC, my necessary mobile phone, hot water in my bathroom, my ten minutes daily shower, my A/C to freshen Beirut summertime, my daily delicious meat dish, a few new clothing items for each new season and finally how to live without disposable diapers, sanitary napkins, toilet paper,….).

Equality is not possible without giving up our lifestyle or at least without radically changing it.

I’m not saying we all have to transform into eremites if we want to stand for revolution. But I believe it is important to be conscious of what we are doing; of what we really want and of what are the consequences of our desires. Revolution can become a daily practice in the choices we make about what we do, what we need, how we spend our time, our money, our energy, and how we live.

Each action has a reaction, it is a physical law, and all reaction will be of same strength of the action but in the opposite direction.

So basically, if I want peace in the world around me, my only possibility is to make a love action and get a love reaction from the world.

We cannot import peace, joy, love, respect, wisdom, or solidarity in the world if we, at first, are not always full of peace, joy, love and respect; if we are not always able to be wise or soliders. It is like trying to import democracy and deciding ahead who as to win the elections and imposing the candidate through war and violence.

So I guess the etymology of Revolution is its true and deeper meaning: we can burn tires and go out to the streets, it gives courage and strengths to see we are not alone willing to change the world, but if we are not conscious of what we are doing we will soon be back at the starting point.

At the same time this etymological meaning confirms the mental image that to change the world we have to turn, turn back our gaze from the outside upsetting world to the inside. When we find peace there, inside ourselves, we can easily bring peace around us, and little by little let it spread.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi would say.