Revolution is a total and sudden change in societal values, often motivated by ordinary people overpowering their leadership. Failed uprisings can lead to gradual change, and technological advancements can have a significant impact on society.
The word “revolution” is used in many different contexts, but is usually understood to describe an aggressive overthrow of a governmental structure or social construct, or a huge sudden change in societal values. The thing that most distinguishes these events is that the change is total. A revolution generally represents a complete reversal from one way of doing things to another way which is usually diametrically opposite. Most are motivated by ordinary people who decide to use their advantage to overwhelm their leadership.
In some societies, oppression can continue for hundreds of years before people decide to take action against it. At a fundamental level, many theorists believe that all governments actually serve in the service of their people, even though it sometimes seems the other way around. When people finally decide they’ve had enough, they usually have the power to overthrow dictators and poor leaders, and sometimes it’s remarkably easy to do so. What triggers this isn’t always obvious, but when it does, it can sometimes be sudden and decisive.
Even when revolutionary attempts are unsuccessful, they have the potential to lead to significant social change. When a group of people decides to push for significant change, sometimes the elite make concessions to calm things down. These concessions can represent significant progress, even if they do not represent the total change required by a complete revolution. Sometimes, societal change can happen gradually, as failed uprisings gradually push a society in a different direction, until a total reversal of the former way of life is achieved.
The Chinese Revolution and the French Revolution are some very important political examples, but many experts believe that the most significant were actually changes in thinking and ways of doing things. Examples would be the Italian Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution. These generally represented massive changes in the way people lived.
People sometimes use the word in relation to technology, and sometimes a new technological device will represent a game-changing change. A good example would be the invention of the computer or the development of the Internet. Inventions like these can have the power to change a society as drastically as any political upheaval. For example, the invention of the automobile changed society on almost every level, affecting many aspects of a person’s life.
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