Blog Post for the Week of February 24
This week, I found our discussion of the Mexican Revolution to be interesting. Reading The Underdogs, though, reminded me of the violence and chaos of the French Revolution. Although The Underdogs is fictional account, it seems to show how quickly a revolutionary movement can turn into chaos, similar to the French Revolution. This got me wondering how a revolution goes from an organized military effort against the government to a mess of violent factions all fighting and killing each other, including civilians. I think it goes back to the discussion we had on a revolution losing sight of what its goals were. This was seen in Viva Zapata when Zapata becomes president and almost turns the figure he had originally been fighting. It can also be seen by Demetrio in The Underdogs, although one could argue Demetrio never really new what he was fighting for in the first place. I think that when a revolution lacks or loses track of definite goals, it has a tendency to degenerate into a violent mess. That's not to say revolutions aren't typically violent in the first place, but I think when they forget about or lose sight of their fundamental motive, such as replacing the government that's in power, they typically spiral out of control. If that fundamental goal or motive is lacking or forgotten about, then everyone simply picks their own personal reason to fight, like Demetrio who began fighting due to an incident he had with Don Monico, which leads to people using the revolution as an excuse to carry out their own violent vendetta. Revolutions can bring benefits in resetting a nations government, social classes, and so on, but they seem to always ride a fine line between necessary violence and senseless brutality, and losing track of their goals or motives can push them over the edge into senseless brutality.
Joe, I also find it interesting to look at how revolutions become disorganized throughout history. Yes, revolutions are necessary in order to progress in a country, but they do become unnecessary violent more often than not. I feel that as a human race we tend to lose sight of what we are actually fighting for, which is the cause of most breakups and wars.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe! I also found it interesting how the revolution went from somewhat organized to completely chaotic by the end. I think what I found most significant about the decay into chaos was that Demetrio and his group were fighting against other revolutionaries who should have been their allies. The fact that long-term violence can turn even people who are supposed to be on the same side into enemies is both astounding and heartbreaking in my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joe, for the post. I like the point you make about how revolutionaries begin with good intentions but often loose sight of their initial goals and degenerate into chaos and senseless brutality, as occurred in The Underdogs. I am reminded of the quote I shared in class by Mariano Azuela "Thinkers prepare revolutionaries; bandits carry them out."
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