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Welcome to our first discussion thread for Blueprint for Revolution: How to use rice pudding, Lego men, and other nonviolent techniques to galvanize communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world by Srdja Popovic!
You can buy the book here or from your favorite book shop*: https://bookshop.org/a/8639/9780812995305Let’s look at the cover, preface, and illustrations of Blueprint for Revolution before we begin digging into the book.
The cover image of the edition I have (and in the images for these posts) shows a person preparing to throw a bouquet of flowers and the text mentions rice pudding and Lego men.
As we’ve seen even in the last year, non-violent means of protest are not uncommon – consider the Portland Frog Brigade which has spread the idea of wearing frog and other inflatable costumes to anti-ICE protests around the United States as a means of non-violent protest. Bringing whimsy to protests also brings media and community attention which translates to pressure on those being protested and the regimes that support them.
When it comes to flowers, specifically, there’s a famous image titled “Flower Power” taken by The Washington Evening Star newspaper photographer Bernie Boston on October 21, 1967 at the March on the Pentagon protest related to protesting the Vietnam war. The image shows a protester inserting carnations into the barrel of a rifle held by a soldier. Others also were placing flowers in the rifle barrels, but this particular image was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1967. Initially, the photograph was not given much attention until it was entered into a photography contest and then became a popular symbol of peaceful protest.
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| Flower Power photograph by Bernie Boston, taken during the March on the Pentagon, October 21, 1967, Wikipedia |
Many of you have probably heard the phrase “flower power”, but you may not know where it began. In 1965, poet/writer, Allen Ginsberg wrote an essay called “How to Make a March/Spectacle” in which he stated to hand out “masses of flowers” as a means of fighting violence with peace. He advocated giving flowers to those in power, the police, the press, and more. The phrase “flower power” quickly became popular, particularly related to peacefully protesting the Vietnam war. It spread quickly from Berkley, California to the rest of the nation even though Ginsberg didn’t actually use the exact phrase in his essay.
Learn more about the iconic photo here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_Power_%28photograph%29
You can read more about Ginsberg’s ideas and essay here:
https://1965book.com/2014/11/05/november-19-the-berkeley-barb-publishes-allen-ginsbergs-essay-demonstration-or-spectacle-as-example-as-communication-or-how-to-make-a-marchspectacle-which-extols-the-use-of-flowers-in-pro/
You can learn about Popovic’s group, Otpor! here: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/otpor-struggle-democracy-serbia-1998-2000/
Other than flowers and frog costumes, are there examples of non-violent resistance that you can think of?
Is there a form of non-violent protest or resistance that you practice, no matter how big or small?
In terms of the bullet points on the back cover, is there one point you are most interested in learning more about?
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