Revolution Speeds Evolution
While listening to BBC news coverage of Iran on the radio this morning, the words “Revolution speeds evolution” came to my head. At the time, the words fit the current Iran situation very well and time will tell whether there is a revolution, a new election, or crushed hopes and lives. Since it rang in my head, I scribbled it in my ever-present notebook for later reference. As I scribbled the, I thought this must have been said before.
When I got to work, I googled the phrase, searching various combos for 10-15 minutes, thinking full well that those simple words had been written before. By somebody, sometime. More likely many times.
I was surprised when I found nothing. It’s SO basic. Too basic. Certainly too basic not to be found. It strikes me as such a fundamental truism that it almost goes without saying. A bromide at birth.
The fact that I was pretty sure such a bromide had been born before is conditioned by the lateness of human times, the “been there, done that” attitude to which one is prone in these late days. The post- after the post-modern, if you will, or maybe the post-post-. Who can say? Even the identifiers of “ages” can’t keep up. All I can say is this old horse feels like he’s always chasing a moving post, racing to, but never reaching, the starting gates where a race should begin.
Nevertheless I wrote it. Maybe I should copyright it. But what does copyright mean any more? In this not-world yet hyper-communicative ether of twitter & ilk? Words are open source. Now more than ever. Once released out to the ether, the interwebs (as the clever kids call it), words are community property.
And, after all, they’re all already in the dictionary. Already written, already t/here. Been there, done that, as it were.
Been there, done that? NO. NOT that post-y, unearned cynical pose that may blind us (especially the pre-jaded young) to very fundamental, wholly non ironic, potentially useful TRUTHS.
When we’re too jaded for fundamental truths, small or large, bromidic or aphoristic, we’re truly lost.
But I’m joesmith. A bromide at birth. What the fuck do I know that hasn’t been known already? Too basic to bother, but still do. Too common to claim ownership of anything, let alone three simple words. But yet…
Sometimes a bromide fits the bill.
Revolution does speed evolution. I’m with you in spirit, people of Iran. If I can, I’ll assist however a common man can. May your God be with you.