Revolution Revolution Revolution

In ancient times a battle was a matter of massed armies of soldiers meeting on an open field, bashing each others' brains in until one side's commander yielded to the other. Warfare now is a matter of blowing the opponents into tiny bits, or else piercing them with holes from a great - unassailable in many instances - distance. Clearly, civilization hasn't progressed significantly if so much of our international, intercultural, and most particularly internecine politics comes down to a matter of who can more effectively kill whom.

Many of our modern electronic entertainments rely on warfare simulation for their model. Perhaps it's time for warfare to turn to electronic entertainment for its future model.

Enter Revolution Revolution Revolution. It's very similar to Dance Dance Revolution (DDR hereafter) in that combatants are in fact dancing instead of laying about the heads and shoulders of the enemy. Instead of guns, riot shields and handy rocks and sticks, all RRR will require is a large sound system and combatants with a good sense of rhythm.

RRR demands of the combatants an obvious ability to coordinate large groups of people, and a willingness to look a little foolish in the pursuit of a higher cause. And perhaps most wondrous of all, it doesn't require that anyone get hurt (except for maybe some nagging knee and ankle injuries).

The massed armies take the field, and the music starts. Armies take turns strutting their stuff, occasionally permitting a legendary hero to shine with an especially well-wrought dance that will rattle the morale of the foe. The music drives them to higher and higher challenges - formation dancing, expressive dance, and as a final massed assault, breakdancing en pointe. The ensconced bureaucracy withdraws, beaten and exhausted. The exultant student agitators gleefully take control of their country's government to craft a new, better future. Peace returns to the land...

With a thumping beat.