The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Difference between revisions
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** Before any of the totalitarian figures listed above ever came to power, there was [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]]. [[The Theme Park Version]] of his philosophy is often taught as an advocacy for total democracy, in which people are completely informed about all issues and decide, as a unanimous whole, what is beneficial to them. Less appealing to modern sensibilities is what he advocated as the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|means to these ends]]: Among other things, the abolition of religion in favor of one civil religion that basically worshiped the state, the abolition of parenting in favor of communal rearing, and the abolition of just about every other thing that makes people unique from one another. Far from the naturalist/anarchist he's often been [[Flanderization|flanderized]] into, you could argue that Rousseau invented the [[People's Republic of Tyranny]].
* In the vein of ''Weather Underground'', Europe had its share of student revolutionaries; Red Army Faction, or RAF, and Brigade Rosse in West Germany and Italy respectively. The former is somewhat notable to only officially cease activity at the late half of the 90's. Both organizations were behind a small number of violent acts towards the governments.
* The [[wikipedia:Russian constitutional crisis of 1993|1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis]] initiated by then-President Boris Yeltsin might be thought of as a much-delayed counter-revolution, rather than a revolution, but given that the Soviet Union had already been fairly peacefully dissolved more than a year earlier, Yeltsin's orders for elite Army Divisions stationed in Moscow to fire ''live ammunition'' at the country's own parliament in order to avoid his own impeachment and dissolve the Supreme Soviet could definitely be thought of as not civilized. Of course, the Parliamentarians also shot back and arguably pushed the situation over into battle by not dissolving.
** And firing at the parliament was the least bloody part (few people will ever know whether there were anyone on the higher floors where the shots were aimed), fights around all Moscow before siege of parliament were the deadliest street fights in Moscow since 1917. Neither side was fully legitimate by the confrontation and neither side was civilized in the confrontation. So, whatever side was The Revolution, it was not civilized.
* The Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
* The [[English Civil War|"English" "Civil Wars"]]. The romanticized view paints this as a falling-out between King and Parliament leading to several battles and ending with the King's unfortunate execution followed by an "interregnum" during which England is ruled by the firm-but-fair Oliver Cromwell before eventually ending in an inevitable restoration and the new King and Parliament making peace. The actual history has an incompetent, tyrannical King dragging his country into a bloody, fractious civil war and who refuses to compromise with Parliament despite his eventual defeat (after seven years of warfare!) leading to his execution, the abolition of the monarchy and the institution of a republic.<br /><br />The republic leads to an autocracy, then the republic again, then a monarchical restoration followed by further political upheaval, another King overthrown, a parliamentary-appointed monarchy and the overthrown line seeking to regain the throne at which they make two serious attempts. All in all, the civil strife started in 1642 continued to have repercussions, on and off, well into the next
* Both the IRA and the Ulster Defence Volunteers were playing this one straight from an early stage.
* During the Iranian Revolution in 1979, almost everyone from communists to religious fundamentalists worked together to overthrow the Shah. As soon as they won, control of the country boiled down to who had the largest number of organized thugs out on the streets. The Islamic socialists having lost their main leader, Ali Shariati, to a [[Secret Police|SAVAK]] assassin's bullet in England in 1978, they couldn't organize their thugs well enough to enforce their will, and fanatical Khomeinist Islamists won the day. The Khomeinists promptly purged the country shortly after they clinched power.
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