Just Ask Moses: We've Been Fighting This Fight for a Very Long Time
The Black Death, Peasant Revolts, Bullies vs Rebels and much more...
I’m not sure when the first humans rebelled against coercion, control, and greed. It could have been when Urgh, Erm, and Grah laid claim to the biggest piece of meat “just because,” prompting Merrrrr to doink Urgh with a mammoth bone, a reminder that they all share in the feast. Or maybe it was when, from the back of the cave, after an awkward gesture, Elon Grog proclaimed himself Ruler of All, and the tribe responded rationally by ripping him limb from limb.
Nearly every mythology and religion have some kind of ruckus between bully gods and divine rebels, including Christianity which has the “rebel” Lucifer telling the “bully” God to fuck off. Further on in the Bible we learn of Moses and his rebellion against the Egyptian slave state. We also learn of Moses’ fanaticism and how, when he became a bully, some of his followers rebelled against him and his god.
Because I went to the same schools many of you did, the first rebellions I learned about were those associated with the American Revolution. Not only were these the first rebellions known to me, other revolutions, riots, protests, or any political trouble-making that happened prior or outside the “New World” were never mentioned. As student, we retained the idea that no one else in the history of mankind rebelled against authority until the American Revolution happened…and that no one did it better.
The United States was the historical marker, the revolutionary trendsetter, the dawn of the rebel – that was what we were left school believing because, through addition or omission, that is what they taught us. Despite being bad history, omitting humans’ rebellious past limits our perceptions of our own power and what is possible. By implying that the American Revolution is the first and best, we assume that we can’t do better. Our dissent becomes tepid and confined to what the Constitution (and, thus, the powers-that-be) allows us.
After high school, reading independently, probably in an interview with CRASS, I learned of English Peasants' Revolt of 1381. At the time of the revolt, England was recovering from the Black Death, a plague that decimated the population, particularly serfs and free laborers, creating labor shortages and a land glut. Though England’s population went into decline, demand for basic goods was still high.
We know through the COVID Pandemic what low supply, high demand, and labor shortages mean: Inflation, a demand for increased wages, and leverage by workers to make their demands a threat. During the pandemic, the U.S. had a surge in labor organizing and a wave of labor actions including strikes, most of which were successful because workers understood that they had the bosses by the balls and they fought for what they deserved.
Just prior to the Peasant Revolt, free laborers and the serfs, their semi-enslaved cohorts, saw they had an edge and organized for fair wages, better working conditions, and more freedom. Landlords, through the state, fought back. They got the legislature to pass laws reverting wages to what they were before the plague. They also pushed the state to make dissent against these orders illegal and in some cases punishable by death.
Those who survived the plague were having none of it. The workers rebelled. There were walk-off, strikes, slowdowns, and sabotage. Landlords were run off their land and their manors were attacked. Serfs were particularly active, fueled by a hatred for feudalism. Leaders emerged, people like Wat Tyler, John Ball, John Wrawe, and the mysterious Jack Straw, and soon the rebels were taking over towns, including London, where there were battles between workers and authorities, fights that often ended with the “peasants” sacking the opulent palaces of wealth, power, and the church.
Eventually, the establishment asserted its rule and “order was maintained.” Laws were passed that were strong enough to quiet the landlords and weak enough to keep the workers from rising up again. The landlords lost some, the workers gained a little, and no one was satisfied. But as years passed, it became clear that the “peasants” had cracked the system’s foundation.
The legitimacy of serfdom had been challenged; the viability of feudalism questioned; faith in the powers-that-be damaged; worker self-esteem had risen. Fearful of another Peasant Revolt, landlords were a bit more reluctant not to grant wage increases, and when they balked, they did quietly. More and more serfs gained freedom and laws were passed preventing generational serfdom. The Peasant Revolt was the beginning of the end of feudalism.
I don’t know how many revolts, rebellions, uprisings, insurrections, riots, and revolutions aiming towards liberation have happened; but I am certain that if you stopped me on the street and said, “Hey, you! Soriano! Yeah, I know its you so stop pretending you don’t hear me. What rebellions can you name, ones that happened since the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381? Now! Answer me now!”, I am pretty sure that I could rattle off fifty in a few minutes. Give me five years (and a grant and a research assistant), I’ll have a 2,000+ page encyclopedia of rebellion for you.
Revolts, rebellions, uprisings, insurrections, riots, and revolutions happen and have been happening all the time. Same with nearly all forms of protest, from circulating a petition to setting oneself on fire. From the moment of our birth as a species, we have rebelled against authority when authority has tweaked us. We have fought back against bullies since the first bully bullied.
There is something inside of us that shouts “Yes!” when others tell us “No!” There also seems to be something inside that entices us to control and dominate others. We are in tension with ourselves and each other. Often, we ease that tension peacefully, through reflection, discussion and negotiation. Sometimes, things get difficult and ugly. But, always and probably forever, this is a dance that we do.
That we are “back” to the dance is no surprise to me, as I believe that the dance has never ended. I like that. I like that we fight back, that we demand more and better. I see no good in unity if unity means more of the status quo, a status quo which benefits those with wealth and power, and which rests on centuries of inequity and injustice. We should be constantly agitating, fighting for more freedom, more sharing, and more compassion. And we should know that this seemingly-Sisyphean struggle is worth it. We can make things better over time.
Read me long enough and I’ll chum up a quote by the French historian Henri See. Writing in the 19th Century, See observed that history was like waves lapping at a cliff. One moment the cliff is there, the next it is gone. Change is rarely instant, especially big change. It takes many waves eating away at the cliffs for a good amount of time. Shhwatt, shhwatt, shhwatt, over and over until pebbles then rocks then boulders then chunks then the cliff falls.
The nature of change is why persistence and perseverance are so important when fighting for something better. Numbers are great, but without persistence and perseverance lots of people at a giant protest is just a one hit wonder unless you bring the crowd again and again and again. We don’t want a big one-and-done. We benefit way more from smaller actions which are both constant and consistent. That is where we form roots and what we build off of. That is the pressure that causes cliffs to fall come from. That is how Black Death peasants pushed dissent into a revolt that led to change ultimately resulting in the death of feudalism.
So, when I write that “we can do this,” I’m not coming from a place of optimism or “positive mental attitude.” I am not a manifestation dude. I read history and note where we are and where we have been. I don’t think of us as unique or special but as one of many in a centuries-long fight between bullies and rebels. Trump vs the Rest of Us, that’s just one small passage in a very long story, a passage that we star in right now but one of many in history and the present. That is a good thing. And, yes, we can do this.