Ages of Revolution

I wrote this at the age of 15.

I was sitting at my dining table. I had taken a break from studying for my history prelim which was the following morning. I have always been a fan of history. My mother and I were having an argument about how my reluctance to eat home cooked food would soon result in consequences. As the argument heated up, in my head I simply referred to her as a tyrannical ruler.

This is when it all struck me.

This is a comparison between the different stages of adolescence and a few of my favorite revolutions in history

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The Renaissance which means ‘rebirth’, started in the late 1400’s and was carried out till the 1600’s. This too in a way was a revolution. There was expansion of trade and voyages which led to the discovery of new sea routes and made the Europeans interact with many different races and nations. These foreign lands and the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome were their inspiration to a bright and better future.

Similarly, for us, from the ages of 10 to12 we’re easily influenced by singers, actors, celebrities and other important people. This like the renaissance is the starting point for a bright change in our future. We should call this our learning era or our renaissance period. It all starts here.

However, this is the time where we also start questioning our authorities, exactly how people took to humanism and liberalism and started questioning the church and their feudal lords. This eventually led to the disintegration of monarchy. 

We too, would one day want to overthrow autocratic rule, or our imperialist authorities but there are two more revolutions or stages in our life that we have to pass through before we get there.

Let’s compare our nature to the industrial revolution, the Americans and finally the French. However let’s not forget the imperialists.

 The 17^th century, ages 11-13.

The different countries try to set up trade in different in many parts of the world, preferably the weaker ones.

We try to set up a social circle, try to look for a group of friends that we can stick too, we hope to impact, bring about a change in that tiny group. Maybe, even get a couple of people to listen to us and create a status for ourselves.

We call these different groups stereotypes.

In the 17^th century they called it colonies.

It is at this age where we determine our social status by the people we hang out with. And it was at that age that the Europeans showed of their military might to colonize the best land the one that supplied the most amounts of riches and benefits.

Our thoughts work the same way, we refuse to believe it does, but we only make friends if we know that we will benefit from them. Not financially or materialistically, but emotionally and for our social benefit.

So you see we have the same matter of interests in the 21^st century that countries had in the 17^th century. The only difference is that theirs was for national benefit and ours is personal. They made progress and modernized themselves; we make progress and grow up.

I won’t emphasize much on the industrial revolution as we have nothing much to do with capitalism and exploitation at the ages of 13-15, but we do start getting our very first gadgets. The industrial revolution is also known as the ‘Machine age’.

It is not major thing, getting a cell phone or being the proud owner of an I-pod, but the impact these gadgets have on our lives is revolutionary. We get addicted to mere scraps of metal put together which help us communicate and entertain us. Fabulous isn’t it? The benefit of technology. That’s exactly what the industrialist thought when Hargreave created the Spinning Jenny or when James Watt came up with the Steam Engine, also let’s not forgets the ancestor of our cell phones, Graham Bell’s Telephone.

Many people might not agree to the fact that cell phones and other gadgets impacted their lives or way of living. Let me just say, certain historians also disagree that the industrial revolution is actually not a revolution. It was a progressive change. Even now the use of gadgets has been a progressive change, we started at 13, but it has a revolutionary impact same as the industrialization. Try giving up your cell phone by the time your fourteen and a half!

You can’t.

You’ll feel helpless.

At fifteen we have already set up our groups and by the 18^th century the imperialist nations had already set up their colonies. But at fifteen, we’re still only children.

Some bold enough teenagers will separate themselves and from these groups and start little groups of their own. In particular these are those older than us who have moved past our levels of immaturity and have grown up. Similarly certain people of the different European nations left their homeland and formed colonies in the ‘New World’, which later became known as the United States of America.

We look at people older than us and get inspired by their courage to make something of themselves. Our role models, we call them.

The world looked at the way America overthrew their imperial nation and got inspired to do the same, but they took their time. We’ll take ours.

There comes a time when we begin feeling suppressed by our authority and will do anything and everything to go against them. They often ask us why we grow up, in very subtle ways, not wanting us to move away and be theirs to take care of. This again is in the personal and emotional interest of our authority. They don’t want to suppress us but they don’t want to let go either.

However when it came to the British, they too merely wanted to protect America, the land, and reap benefits of that region. It was business, all in national interest.

Did the Americans believe that?

Do our role models believe that it’s all in the emotional interest of our authority?

Do we believe that?

The Americans protested and war broke out. Our role models rebelled and found their way out. America became independent. Our role models became adults.

On 14^th July 1789, the French could no longer handle their monarchial rule and revolted, and like the Americans they fought for their freedom.

We work for our freedom, study our way into adulthood. We, like the French were inspired by the Americans – Role models

We too, will one day be inspiration to those younger than us. Then it’s our turn to be the first federal government and their turn to be the cornerstones of our progressive modern world.

At adulthood, it all about world war one and two.

I’m not there yet, but I will say this.

It isn’t going to be pretty.

Copyright © Kanika Chopra. 2012.