When is Revolution, irrational right and wrong, essays and poems (pdf)

For me revolution is emotional and as a happening it is irrational, violent and brutal. During political revolution everything happens fast and we don’t know what happens next. Future looks like an endless fight and filled with unkept promises. Idea of political revolution is to take power from those who abuse the nation and its people. The word revolution is about something orbiting the same route without stopping. The irony is that it is what many man-made revolutions end up doing, going in circles. To throw over bad leaders to make new bad leaders and bad politics. It is the case in many current revolutions. The importance is emphasised on the event, which is a thrill, act of taken freedom, but to make the nation actually democratic is much more difficult. It takes a long time, serious work and dedication and actual will to want democracy. Reasons why democracy and peace are difficult to find and accomplish I go through in my book. Most important issue is who has got the power, how is it used and gained and held on to. Other issues closely linked to how power is used and by who are ideology, religion, gender issues, basic values on which society is built. Politics is power play and a show, but it has appeared that the ones who truly have power are hidden behind massive fortunes. World economy keeps politicians in tight leash and us as well. Finance world creates the empires we look at. Here comes the role of the consumer, voter, citizen and the part played by the individual. Do we live to benefit our own good only? To make revolution is a question of existence and how to exist.

My work consists of written text only, poems and essays. No images added other than what my texts make and a burning need to do something. I began my search and research in a tormented way, thrilled and with joy for having this opportunity. I understand what to make revolution means. It is total belief in what one is doing. It is focus. It becomes meaning. As finished, the item, my book, looks like a copy of next year’s budget. It is grim, but so is the state of the world. I did not want this book to be polished work of art, nor a clean correct scientific statement of having searched for something and reported the results. Results of human activity are in the news, in landscape, all over. If one bothers to dig deeper, evidence is there. I had to break a pattern of making and saying. Lots of patterns to be broken over and over. But then I had to also make something whole, something new, not just to break and put to pieces, but to build. One helpful thing was to start writing without thinking about the mistakes I might make. Not to think what other people might think about my work. My research method was to dive in, into the sea of information and try to find the truth and make an image of the world in need of total turn over.

I wanted to make a manifesto and do it as an artist and a writer mixed with the role of researcher. My approach to subject revolution is that everything is linked, every action has a reaction and those things happening far away affect us here. Making revolution becomes a difficult and delicate task, it becomes a task of everybody and not only of those far away. That is what I am after. Making a revolution which is not bound by borders of nations. To break walls inside people’s minds meaning prejudices, class, traditions, misogyny, racism and superstitions.

My meaning is to provoke to think, not only of oneself. What is the possible revolution, that may seem impossible, because a lot is wrong and those who have the ultimate power are truly mighty. We are surveilled and under heavy rule of capitalism, which seriously looks like totalitarianism and brainwash. Where owning as much as possible is seen a good thing. It also seems that those mighty ones’ make us feel powerless and small on purpose. It is to enslave us. Our world is filled with propaganda on how life should be lived. Media is the one powerful force, which is difficult to be defeated and changed. It is not luckily one entity. There are unbias news and neutral reports, one just have to be able to find them. We are at mercy of what is given to us if we don’t know where and how to look for information. I have been interested in finding revolution that would benefit people instead of the leaders, a revolution of information, wisdom and do it yourself. Can such revolution be found in the news via articles and columns in the net? How to connect with those who think the same? Many current revolutions have been implemented and reported by other than reporters of magazines in the internet as we know and we can follow very closely what happens in Ukraine, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Tibet etc. if we wish. We can choose if we want to follow what happens, what concerns us. We can choose what interests us, what makes us choose. How free and individual are we in our decision-making? Social media have become an important way to put activism through. For example Feminist organization Femen has an active online of images and videos in social media from their demonstrations around the world. Change is happening fast because information and agitation get noticed and is very much-needed. We need the courage to do the right thing.

There is something about fragmented way of doing, which interests me. It reflects the world we live in. How we put together the bits and pieces and make the picture of it all. That is one part of what my work is about. Essays and poems which talk with each other, so they have become chapters of this book. I have framed my work to grow from radical feminist point of view. It is feared and hated movement, diminished by many. Feminism is the ideology, ethical and philosophical ground from where I write and do art. Rights of women and children are my main focus, crucially important to take into consideration and pay attention to, because they are the ones violated in a massive manner. They are the weak and the powerless. That includes how we take care of the environment. It has a direct influence on lives of poor people, who very often are women and children.

Question is not what needs to be done to make a complete turnover of way of life. We have the answers but are we ready to put them in use in a scale that would make the needed impact. The means and actions to do something have to be implemented immediately, not in twenty years. It means giving up one’s comfort and winnings for comfort and well-being of someone else somewhere else.

The book I begin with introduction to poetry and a collection of poems of mine. In general in history poetry has been making social change and we can think how does it do it. Who is the poet? What is part of an artist? It is a relief to read stories and texts of people who have been through difficult times, it is to reflect. It is about sharing. Same goes with music which is poetry as well and history is filled with powerful protest songs. Music has played tremendous role in waking up, inspiring and unifying people. Poetry and truth provokes. Because truth can be ugly.