What would be different about this revolution that would see it go right (or what examples am I missing?)
I would say there’s no way revolutions of today will go in exactly the same path as before. Remember that China’s and Russia’s revolutions happened in extermely rural, agrarian, over exploited and basically completely ruined countries. If there’s a revolution in the global north, just the difference in conditions and systems is already going to make a huge difference. But even if it happens in the global south, most of it is at least partially industrialized and not agrarian, as far as I know.
Anyway, other than that, I can’t really give you an objective, unbiased answer. I was actually the same as you a couple of years ago, actually. I had the same concerns as you. I think you would really resonate with anarchist theory, analysis and critique of past revolutions, if you’re interested in digging into it.
I haven’t seen much to encourage me in more recent ‘colour’ revolutions and the Arab spring either. I figure I’d be more receptive if the history of this kind of thing (while circumstantially different) want near-universally bad.
Funnily enough, I feel my argument is based on anarchist principles (though I haven’t read the theory) - if we don’t address the practical power disparities created by wealth disparities, it’ll be near impossible to fight the formation of less democratic hierarchies than we have today.
Whatever the case, this is a motivation for me to pull my finger out and go read Kropotkin though - cheers.
Kropotkin is a nice start, though if you want an introduction I think Errico Malatesta’s work is a lot better for that. The essay “Anarchy” is short for leftist standards and is very good. Also “At the cafe” is honestly an amazing introduction piece and it’s written in a regular language as socratic dialogues, so it’s perfect for starting. It even adresses a lot of counter arguments from many perspectives.
Otherwise Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloo is also amazing.
