You say you want a revolution (2024)

So said the Beatles in 1968 and so say most Americans today.

According to a May 2024 Times/Sienna poll, a large majority of Americans in battleground states (69%) think our political and economic systems need anywhere from major to complete change. It also shows that more people think Trump (70%) will bring about that change than Biden (24%), and 43% think those changes will be good.

What I find most ominous about these numbers is not so much the percentage of people embracing Trump’s authoritarian leadership. That is indeed ominous, but even more disturbing, these numbers suggest that we the people have given up on ourselves, so much so that we are now looking to a “strong” leader to change what we think we can’t.

It’s a dangerous game, this giving up on ourselves and looking to strongmen to impose change for us. History tells us again and again that the power given to strongmen ends up being far more destructive and far harder to get back than anticipated. Think Stalin in the Soviet Union, or Putin in modern day Russia, or Hitler in Nazi Germany, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Mao Zedong in China.

Few among those who brought these leaders to power ever anticipated the sheer horror that would follow, or just how hard the road back would be. Had they known, perhaps they would have been slower to give away their power—or not given it away at all.

We humans are a mixed lot. In the grips of despair and fear, we are capable of making terribly cruel, destructive choices that are ultimately self-defeating.

When filled with hope, inspiration, determination, and love, we are capable of making choices that affirm and uplift our common humanity, allowing us to rise to even the worst occasions, together.

In the midst of news awash with what we do on our worst days, I turn to music to recall what we are capable of doing on our best days. I find it helps to tap into those reminders to stop ourselves from becoming people whose worst days outnumber their best. I turned to the three songs below after reading the battleground state polls. Listening to them helped. Perhaps it will help you too.

Revolution

The year the Beatles’ song Revolution hit the charts, I graduated high school and stepped into a world on fire with change. When I listen to that song now, the past fades away and its relevance to our world today outstrips my memories of that earlier time.

If you listen to the song, you’ll notice they draw a line in the sand when it comes to change, a line that proved controversial at the time and likely would today. But it is a line we very much need to draw for true change to occur—change that eliminates or at least reduces mass violence as a negotiating tactic.

And notice what the song says about where the most important change lies:

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know, we'd all love to change your head.
You tell me it's the institution.
Well, you know, you better free your mind instead.

Change may not end with us, but it surely starts with us. Without us, how does anything change?

One Day

Six years ago in Haifa, Israel—before strongmen on opposite sides of a historic divide pulled out the same stale script to reignite a centuries’ old cycle of mass violence—3,000 Muslims and Jews, none of whom had ever met, came together for an hour to learn the song “One Day”.

During that hour, they not only learned the lyrics to the song but how to sing them in harmony in three different languages. The concert that followed is heartbreaking in light of current events and promising in light of what is still humanly possible even when it feels out of reach.Among the words they sung together:

The event was organized by Koolulam, an initiative that harnesses the power of musical harmony to inspire harmony in humanity. Since 2017, they have been bringing together large groups of people from different backgrounds, cultures, faiths, and geographies to spur social change through musical cooperation.

Listen to the result of what happened in Haifa, then imagine what might happen if communities across our country assembled hundreds, or even thousands, of people together to sing One Day, not just once but perhaps every month in the town square.

Change

In 2019, at the age of 22, singer-songwriter Kodi Taehyun Lee rose to fame on the 14^th season of America’s Got Talent. Legally blind and autistic, Kodi is considered a musical savant and for good reason. In 2024, his song Changereached the top 10 on Apple Music and received a standing ovation on his return to America’s Got Talent that same year.

I forget how I came across his performance on that show, but as Maya Angelou would predict, I will never forget how it made me feel. Written by Lee, the lyrics below and his performance that night resonated deeply with me. Don’t miss it.

Now that’s the kind of change I can get behind. Count me in.

What kind of change would you like to see?

Please send us your thoughts, hopes, or dreams in Comments.

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Notes

Maya Angelou: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”