Ahoy!
Are ye ready for another voyage on The Jar of Dirt? I warn ye, this time we'll be braving not only the seven seas, but the seas of time! The winds, if you should so choose to set sail with me today, will take us back through eras of revolution.
Why this sudden journey through time?
Well, Charles Dickens is the compass pointing us on our merry way, and if Dickens is the compass, then A Tale of Two Cities is the map.
While these are the tools which will guide us back through time, they are not the port from which we set sail. The starting point of our journey is in a time much closer to our own.
In 2011, a revolution began in Libya. The people of the country fought to overthrow the oppressive government which they had been forced to live under.
A war was fought. The people rose up. The government fell.
But, what was the cost?
While false reports were released stating that the death toll had reached as high as 50,000, the actual count is - as of last month - an estimated 4,700 dead and 2,100 missing rebel supporters. 6,800 dead, maybe more, maybe less, and that's just from on the side of the revolutionaries. While 6,800 is far less than 50,000, is it any less terrible? Can the loss of life really be considered any less terrible simply because the number of those lost is lower than expected? Is it a cost that people should be so willing and eager to pay?
This where Dickens points us through A Tale of Two Cities.
He leads us back through the centuries to the era of the French Revolution. As he begins the novel, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." While people in other places in the world prospered at the closing of the eighteenth century, the people of France suffered. The common people had nothing while the rich had everything. There was no middle ground; what little there had been was lost somewhere as the people choked down their last scraps of spoiled food. The people were poor, cold, and hungry.
At some point, the poverty became something deeper than just a lack of money, the illness that came with the cold spawned a fever that could not be broken, and the hunger grew until it left nothing inside of the people of France but a ravenous void that could not be filled.
This is the image of desperation which Dickens weaves.
The image of revolution he creates is far, far worse.
According to Dickens, revolution began with vengeance. The people began to believe the unfillable void could be filled, filled with the blood of those who they blamed for their suffering.
According to Dickens, the French Revolution was an unspeakable horror. It was a bloodbath in which the blood of the innocent ran just as freely as the blood of the guilty. It was a nightmare in which the guillotine took the place of God in the minds and hearts of many.
But, what does this mean in the context of today? What is it that Dickens was trying to make us see?
Revolution comes at a cost. If there is a long standing system in place, a system which as many will fight to the death to protect as to destroy, the price to be payed will be in the form of life to be taken. I'm not saying that this is the case for every revolution; I do believe that it is possible for people to see change through without violence. However, as history has frequently shown, people often act without cosidering the price at which change comes.
While I cannot rightly judge the French Revolution nor the Libyan Revolution as I have not directly experienced either, I do believe that the question which Dickens poses throughout his novel is worth asking in both cases.
Was it worth the cost?
...
Well, me hearties, I do believe that our journey through time has come to an end.
Until next time...
(Numbers from Libyan Revolution are taken from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/08/libyan-revolution-casualties-lower-expected-government )
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