Although I am similarly distressed with the present order of confusion, violence and crime that passes for our government, I am leery when people say they want, for example, revolution.

I do not trust our intelligence, particularly at the order of the collective. Something is (badly) wrong with the forms of intelligence that assemble and guide most of our collectives. Additionally, our own human intelligence appears to be similarly compromised. If even one of these observations is relatively accurate, a ‘revolution’ could easily magnify our difficulties rather than resolve them.

The mess, as it were, is right at the front door: we do not really know what intelligence is -for-. Similarly, we are not entirely clear on what being human is for. We are directly instructed about this by the cultures we are exposed to, but their offerings are semi-parasitic substitutes — not educations or fulfillments.

So our situation appears to call for a revolutionary shift in what it means to be intelligent as a human being, or collective. And commensurate reorganizations of our relationships with the world, each other, language, knowledge, learning and identity. If we can be endowed with insight into the otherwise invisible pitfalls and opportunities inherent in these relationships we will have the opportunity to experience actual intelligence, rather than the mere presence of the (easily co-opted) potential for it.

We must also have some relatively clear idea what we are doing here, as human beings, together. Something that would replace the binding agreements that patriotism is the diseased abstraction of. We must have roles worthy of our humanity, roles that invite us to excellence and achievement together without defining these to us.

So it turns out I ache for a revolution. But the one I hope for is cognitive, behavioral, and relational.

A revolution of everyday life.