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I wrote this for the 2/11/13 meeting of the Kuwait Writing Club
Revolution
Cars can teach us about revolution. Without it they are nothing. For a car to move forward, the engine and consequently the wheels must have a revolution. This is usually a trouble free matter but there a few things about how it can go wrong which can inform attempts at other types of revolutions.
Firstly, don't accelerate too much. If you do that, you will do a burn out and might get arrested. For good reason. Some burn outs can cause fire... The tyres could catch alight if you spin the wheels in one spot too long, even the engine can blow up from overheating or overwork. This will destroy your chances of producing more revolutions to ultimately achieve progress.
Second, check the road surface. If it is gravel or wet, the wheels may revolve again without causing progress.
Applied to society, a revolution may be more successful in causing progress if done with some gentleness. Otherwise it might just end up being a few rioters causing fires. Also, is the place prepared properly where you want to have a revolution? If not, the people may misunderstand. Your ideas may fail to gain traction. This may stop progress through revolution.
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Edit: just realised that I missed the main point of cars regarding revolution, they illustrate how inefficient it is at causing progress. Many cars have a rev(olution) counter to illustrate this, showing how many RPM (revs per minute) the engine is doing. Say the average RPM your car does once it's up and going is 2000. Say the average shopping trip is 5km, or 10 minutes from your driveway to the local Sultan Centre. That's 20,000 revolutions! Obviously this is conclusive evidence that society needs to look elsewhere than revolution for a mechanism of progress.
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