"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
Yet if I am for myself only, who am I?"
Hillel
This inscription located in the cover of the book The Milagro Beanfield War correctly encompasses many of the conditions that shape the life of most revolutionary leaders which at the same time serve as combustible for their quests.
It can in fact be compared to the differences expressed between individual versus collective human rights.
For revolutions to take place an individual has to become aware of the misjudgments being made by the higher power of government.
This happens due to the difficulties raised whenever trying to reach self development.
Once this occurs, the individual tries to illustrate other people among the same society of this reality thus creating a domino effect which little by little involves more people and thus a movement is formed. Similarly, a person can not achieve his or her collective human rights if his or her own individual rights are not being accomplished.
From the experiences lived by Mao Zedong, Mohandas Gandhi, Anne Moody, and Jose Mondragon, we can see how they first needed to realize their own identity before being capable of showing others the reality that collectively was being suffered.
Even though these characters were different in the way in which their revolutions took place and in their cultural background, it is obvious that they had to promote actions sometimes based on violent or nonviolent protest in order to gain the mobilization and support of the people.
Before any revolutionary leader becomes what he or she is destined to be, there is a period of character formation which takes place in the early life, especially during childhood. Perhaps the most evident feature that characterized the lives of Mao, Gandhi, Moody, and Mondragon was their relationship with family. With a few differences, we can establish a general rule based on the fact that their rapport with their parents was not very good.
As we recall in Mao’s life, he was forced by his father to attend school in order to gain a superior class status that would lead to an increase in their lands.
Anne Moody’s parents were slaves in a farm where they were mistreated and her mother seemed to live for the only reason of procreating.
Gandhi constantly challenged his family by escaping from school in order to attain a feeling from the limitations of his progenitors.
Jose Mondragon, under the same idea, lost respect for his father after he left him and decided to go north to work for landowners instead of overcoming the obstacles and working his own field.
As we can see, these leaders might have fought for completely different reasons and concerns, but their identity formation definitely occurred due to the events suffered in their childhood.
Resisting powerful authorities and challenging the laws that were naturally being imposed in their lives due to the empirical regulations of their governments or societies where a common theme in these people’s quest for revolution.
Furthermore, the cultural environment where the revolutionary leader grows up is definitely bound to affect the general rules under which the identity of the person will develop. Mao Zedong came from a conservative Chinese tradition surrounded with a very intense meaning of communal living. At this point the importance of Confucianism was paramount in his society and as the mandate from heaven it was not up to him to challenge it.
This made his revolutionary thoughts even more engaging. Similarly Anne Moody lived in a historic period of the United States when people of color where not consider equal in society.
We can consider this as the stone in Anne’s way and with her personal characteristics we see how she transforms this "negative" quality of her life into the gasoline that sparks her revolutionary movement.
Mohandas Gandhi as a person who lived in to a similar society as Mao in the sense of its conservative attitudes towards values and traditions was also challenged after seeing the injustices that his own people and other societies suffered under the rule of colonists from the west.
It was his cultural background what made him realize that people had lived peacefully in their land for centuries and therefore explorer authority was not supposed to impose new divisions and regulations upon them.
Even Jose Mondragon who did not seem to have a very strong cultural attachment to his people’s Catholic beliefs shows his connection with the land that saw him grow after being challenged by his own contradictions.
The attitudes and wisdoms that a person learns throughout the early years of his or her life are much stronger than many innate characteristics.
This is the reason why these leaders were capable not only of convincing themselves of the bad situations that were occurring around them but also of persuading others to understand how they were being affected by these issues.
Maybe the case of Mondragon varies up to some level with this common characteristic but he has a very loyal supporter named Ruby who strengthens his will and his commitment for the preservation of his people’s values.
Because of this identity formation that occurs in front of the eyes of the leader’s societies, the followers see the mistakes and successes thus becoming more engaged into the whole movement that is instantly formed after the consolidation of a group’s ideology.
As we have discussed earlier in ponderings from Hunington and Tilly, there are commonalities in the manner by which revolutions are predetermined.
The fact that the revolutionary leaders studied this semester share many characteristic in their identity formation can be considered as another precondition for revolutionary activity.
Knowing that modernization leads to revolution there must be people who are willing to risk their freedoms and rights in carrying on with this modernization and thus Mao, Gandhi, Moody, and Mondragon are pioneers in their societies thanks to taking that first step towards a more sustainable environment for all.
Another factor that compares the lives of these leaders is the way in which their attitudes changed from simply individuals revolting against a law or mandate to becoming the heart of the revolutionary ideologies among their societies.
When Jose wanted to find a job he never thought about revolting against the northern landowners who were taking away all job opportunities in his area. He simply kicked a water meter and began irrigating his own field.
Even though he knew this was illegal he was accidentally taking a stance against the situation that had been happening in his own life. This action became the heart of his uprising and helped fellow citizens feel identified and do something to support him.
Similar conditions occurred in the lives of Moody, Mao and Gandhi. I do not believe they were born knowing that when they reached a certain age they had to make people support them and revolt against their governments or societies.
It seems as if they simply lived more outspokenly and thus became the heart of the movements which surrounded them.
After all one person is not capable of overthrowing a government, gain rights for a racial group or disrupt a developer’s construction. It is the basic idea collectively with the support of a discontent group of people who are capable of finally reaching those resolutions.
In conclusion, even though we can see how revolutionary leaders are not born but instead they are raised, we now have the capacity to generally agree on the fact that some preconditions do exist during the childhood period of the four revolutionaries analyzed.
Similarly as Tilly expresses that there are preconditions for revolutions to occur such as the tolerability gap in a J-curve, I believe that some events that occur during the early years of a person can shape his or her attitudes towards a more challenging personality which is prone to adopting revolutionary approaches in the future.
The meaning of meaning it for this kind of people relies on the fact that they are not trying to gain power in order to satisfy the needs of others including his people.
What makes them successful in meaning it is being part of the marginalized group who is also looking for self-development and incidentally is supporting others reach the same success.
Bibliography
– Goldstone, Jack Ed. (Hunington).
Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative and Historical Studies.
Boulder: Westview Press, 1991.
Goldstone, Jack Ed. (Tilly).
Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative and Historical Studies.
Boulder: Westview Press, 1991.
. – Goldstone, Jack Ed. (Maslow).
Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative and Historical Studies.
Boulder: Westview Press, 1991.
Fabio Fermi
December 10th 2004