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Oppression, Resistance & Revolution: Friday

Magneto was sitting behind the desk at the front of the classroom this morning as the students walked in. In his hands was a form of archaic media known as a newspaper. It was a couple days old and had the election results plastered across the front page.

"Unless you've been living under a stone, this particular universe just had an election this past Tuesday. In this election key people were elected or re-elected based on the candidates' platforms. Based upon the definitions I provided to you last week, I want you to answer the following question."

Magneto rose and tossed the newspaper onto the desk.

"Is an election a true form of revolution? Why?"

He then pointed at a random student. "You. Answer."

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Is an election a true form of revolution? Why or why not?

"Depends on what people vote for, I guess," Victor said, fidgeting with the cuffs of his sleeves. "This time, the guy got re-elected, so it's not a major change. But if we voted in a full slate of mutant rights activists or something, it would be."

"Could such a thing happen?" Lucrezia asked. "Those in power prefer to stay in power. The mutant rights activists could easily be painted as extremists, unless they agree to play the game the same way everyone else does."

Lucrezia was a cynic. But then, her father had bought a Papacy.

"I didn't say it was likely," Victor pointed out. "Just that if it happened, it would count as a revolution."

"True, you didn't," she agreed easily. "What if those activists were voted in, but never found themselves able to enact change? Would it still be a revolution, but a failed one?"

"I guess," Victor said, turning to get a better look at Lucrezia. "Why, what do you think?"

He hadn't necessarily put a huge amount of thought into his response in the first place.

Lucrezia flushed. "My experiences may not be applicable to modern society," she explained. "But my father bought his way onto the throne of St. Peter's, and he was hardly the only one engaged in simony. I have seen alliances made and disintegrated as easily as one draws breath. I helped to stop a war by batting my eyes at a King who had no mistress. Perhaps Rome has disillusioned me."

"Revolution is fickle, indeed," Loki chimed in, not looking up from his phone. "Power is never secure, however. There is always someone or some cause nipping at the heels of those above them."

"It seems as though it takes more effort to hold the throne than to obtain it," Lucrezia agreed. "Father only had to buy the papacy. He's needed the full use of an army to secure it."

One which would have been better suited in Cesare's hands than Juan's, but thinking of Juan led to its own painful difficulties, these days.

"Of course not!" Bucky sputtered. "Your so-called 'election' is just a sham. If you really believe that the people that get elected are the ones actually pulling the strings, then I've got a bridge to sell you."

"No," Lucrezia said firmly. "Elections are too easily bought. One's choices are only those already in power, those who obey the system."

Surreal's head still hurt from trying to follow their landen politics.

"How often do you people do this to yourselves?" she asked, looking askance at the newspaper. "How do you get anything done?"

"Perhaps this is a distraction," Lucrezia mused. "Allow the citizens to think their elections matter, while those wielding real power continue to do as they like."

Surreal snorted in amusement. "Most likely," she agreed. "How long do your people live? Seventy? A hundred?"

"Blood where I'm from tend to live a few thousand at the least. Every four years of this would drive the males up the wall, and they'd end up smashing things."

"Why are you electing males, anyway? What are they doing that a female can't do better?"

Surreal, your cultural biases are showing.

"It could be a bloodless revolution, should the ruling party be replaced with a new party during these elections," he stated. "Change in power."

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Oppression, Resistance & Revolution: Friday

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