Violence or Vision? Rethinking the True Nature of Revolution

When we think of revolution, our minds often conjure images of upheaval and violence. From the guillotines of the French Revolution to the storming of the Winter Palace, history, as taught in our school years, has conditioned us to see these seismic political shifts as fundamentally violent events. The bloodshed, the battles, the chaos—these are the images that stick.

But is violence the essential trait of a revolution? Or is it merely a symptom?

I would argue that the driving force behind any true revolution is not violence, but something far more profound: the complete replacement of one system of governance with a new mindset, a new vision for how a political system should operate. The violence is often a tragic corollary to this radical change, not its engine.

Consider the great revolutions that shaped the modern world. The Glorious Revolution in 17th-century England was a monumental shift. It challenged and ultimately replaced a system that had endured for over a millennium, where monarchs ruled by the grace of God. In its place, it established a new order where Parliament - the peers and the commoners - held the real power of decision.

This idea evolved further. While the British system retained a monarch in a limited, symbolic role, the French Revolution took the next logical step and did away with the monarchy altogether. It established the concept of a democratically elected National Assembly as the nation's governing body. The American Revolution  added its own radical notion: that a colony could - and should - rule itself, free from an imperial master.

In each case, a foundational concept was overturned and replaced. The divine right of kings was not just defeated on the battlefield; it was buried as a political idea.

The 20th century brought new ideological upheavals. The Russian Revolution sought to replace both the tsarist monarchy and the fledgling democratic parliament with a "dictatorship of the proletariat," an idea derived from Marx and developed by Lenin. Similarly, the Chinese Revolution applied a comparable ideology to bring order to the chaos that followed the collapse of the ancient imperial system.

The common thread weaving through all these events is the substitution of an old order with a new one. It is a war of ideas, a replacement of one political worldview with another. The radical nature of this replacement is what so often leads to violent conflict, as the old guard resists being consigned to history.

This brings us to today. Are we living through a revolution?

A new political movement - sometimes described as "the new right" - is gaining momentum in Europe, America, and beyond. This movement is directly challenging the established liberal democratic order that has dominated the West for decades. It seeks to replace it.

The foundational shift it proposes is from a world of sovereign individuals, the cornerstone of the liberal state, to a world of the sovereign people. It is a challenge not just to policy, but to the fundamental philosophy of governance. 

Whether this modern movement will succeed, and what form it will ultimately take, remains to be seen. But by understanding revolution as a battle of ideas rather than just a spectacle of violence, we can better recognise the profound shifts happening in our own time. We may find that the most significant revolutions aren't always fought on the barricades, but in the hearts and minds of the populace.