Violent, unorganised revolutions never work. They are almost always born out of situations where the people have been pushed to their absolute limit; revolution as an urgent matter of life and death. Such revolts merely replace one established government with another, and the new rulers will fizzle out, be replaced themselves, or fall to the same corruption and greed as their predecessors did. The reason for their failure is that they skipped straight to the revolt stage without proper organisation and a clear idea of what to change and how to change it. While it's not entirely their fault, given the choice between revolt and death, it still results in a failed revolution. Chaos, disorder, and lack of strategies, resources and organisation are the revolution-killers. You could even imagine that the government that they momentarily overthrew might know that such a revolt is short lived, that all they have to do is bide their time until scales are tipped in their favour once more. Perhaps that knowledge is precisely the reason why governments and their corporate bedfellows continue to push our societies closer to the breaking point by the minute. They're not stupid, after all.
Revolt, whether peaceful or violent, is a final resort. Groundwork is needed, and a careful kind of organising. Circumstances are not yet so dire that any sense of urgency might cause corners to be cut. There is time to grow a grassroots movement, to coordinate and create strategies and plan, to share knowledge and ideas so that the future is meticulously made foolproof. Bolster mutual aid so that the breaking point becomes further and further away. By covering these bases the success of the revolution and the lasting change that follows it becomes more and more assured.
The initial spark comes from the revolutionaries organising together. The spark becomes an ember when the revolutionaries organise and mobilise the masses. The ember becomes a flame when the goal of the revolution goes from an idea for how the world could be better to a calculated strategy for reordering the world in the most effective and sustainable way possible. The flame becomes a bonfire when single-pointed unity is achieved.
One thing needs to be made clear - a successful revolution MUST be entirely decentralised. I do not need to preach the benefits of decentralisation, what amounts to sensus communis. If your organisational structure is perfectly flat then it can't be hammered down from above; completely non-hierarchical is the only way that it can be. Every member will have their own roles and responsibilities which cannot be confused with authority. Even the revolutionary leaders are simply fulfilling leadership roles. There can be no bosses and no subordinates. Every role must be equally respected with every other role, and every responsibility must be a responsibility to the people collectively as well as the individual who holds that responsibility.
Without this exact kind of structure, a revolution falls victim to infighting as the lack of class consciousness causes groups of people to treat each other as enemies or as competition. The masses must be constantly aware that although their grievances may take different forms, they are all the same grievance. All of their grievances are of the utmost importance, but no one grievance can be given preferential treatment or be perceived as holding a higher priority than any other. If the structure of the revolution is truly decentralised and non-hierarchical then that symbiosis comes naturally. Everyone understands each other's needs just as much as they understand their own.
None of this is extremely difficult, challenging or time consuming, no matter how much we have been led to believe that it is. Oligarchs and established systems of government rely on the individual believing that they are incapable of enacting change and that uniting and organising large groups of people towards a common goal is impossible. It's a truly devilish trick, one which has averted the very death of capitalism. In reality, collectivism is natural and as easy as breathing. Homo sapiens are pack animals. We are hardwired to work in groups and for the benefit of our group. There isn't a single human in our species' history who achieved anything individually. All of our achievements are inextricably linked to our communities and social networks. "Rugged individualism" is the lie that led to our communities fracturing and dividing into increasingly insular fragments, separating us from the pack and convincing us that we are too powerless to change our circumstances for the better. Capitalism pitted each of us in fierce competition against our fellow humans to make sure that we are constantly too busy fighting each other to fight against capitalism. The absolute worst example of this is the "Fuck you, got mine" mentality. It is the purest form of narcissism, utterly devoid of compassion and wilfully ignorant of the advantages of cooperation.
A great revolution is inevitable, but its form is uncertain. Either we will be thrust into a revolt-or-die situation, or we will unite together and organise the proper kind of revolution, the kind that cannot fail. It is a choice between a failure of a revolution that merely restarts the cycle of oppression and exploitation, and a revolution that brings about a truly better world for us all.
I am fervently hoping for the latter. I could not sacrifice anything for a violent, chaotic revolution which I would not already have had to sacrifice to reach that point besides my life. For a true revolution I would sacrifice everything but my own life, as violence and chaos would not be necessary. My hope is to witness a better world in this lifetime.