Episode 413 of RevolutionZ asks what comes after our eruptions? What happens when the cameras leave, when the easy unity ages even just a little bit, and when power bets we will wear out and go home? What can we do to persist? What can turn an upsurge or for that matter some electoral success, into a sustained, strategic, collective commitment strong enough to win deep political and economic change rather than only isolated reforms? Once iwe are n angry and passionate motion, how do we stay angry, stay passionate, stay in motion, and build effectively for as long at it takes?
Before we get what winning needs, this episode shares some follow-up thoughts from my recent AI conversations and asks you to send your reactions. We consider proposals like banning AI publications and limiting personal use, and how top-down “solutions” can backfire by concentrating advanced AI inside governments and massive corporations. We also push back on the comforting line that AI is “just computation,” just regurgitating human results and just guessing next words so it is nothing to worry about. Reducing a system to its parts does not answer what it can do, who controls it, or what it it will be used for.
Then we widen the lens to the surge of activism across countries and issues: education, housing, jobs, corruption, immigration, war, climate, anti-fascist organizing, and even fights over data centers. The strategic question is how to connect these struggles so they persist and grow, how to ultimately move from single-issue demands toward multi-issue, systemic goals like participatory democracy, feminism, self-managed workplaces, and participatory planning. How to gain commitment and collectivity by way of new consciousness and strategic behaviors. We also reflect on the 1960s to see why “almost winning” is not enough especially when the alternative is a future defined by ecological and social breakdown.
Uprisings are erupting. They are wonderful in so many ways. Yet, we have to grow them further, make them deeper, and most of all sustain them. If we don't think about that, talk about that, how can we do that? We can't. Some gains are essential to accomplish those ends and they are this episode's focus.
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