What Gil Scott Heron Got Wrong
Gil Scott Heron is credited with being the godfather of rap. His lyrics were vocalized somewhere between jazz and a poetry slam, more spoken than sung. It is Gil Scott Heron’s voice when you hear the words “The revolution will not be televised”, the obligatory backbeat behind the Showtime series “Homeland”, t.v. commercials and other streams. When Heron recorded his song-poem at RCA recording studios in April, 1971 his 1960s-ish revolution was being actualized underground via a ghost network of activists, political theorists and reformers. Gil Scott Heron’s revolution was cloaked in whispers, anecdotal and rarely televised.
But today, tiny revolutions in racial justice, sustainability, public health, wage reform, education, energy, environment and other issues are being spread across video screens for anyone holding a handheld 1792x828 pixel digital device.
In fact, the first move for any movement in 2021 is to try to go viral across one of the social media streams: TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etcetera.
How do you start a movement? Nearly 20 million people have taken lessons by watching a guy dancing on YouTube at the Sasquatch Music festival in 2009. It’s a fun example (a man starts dancing alone, a bystander joins in and soon everyone joins in) and the lesson is valid, but movements desiring real impact and intention require…
