The past years have brought a new technological political world, with AI use growing and divisive use of TikTok ban threats, billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, and their respective social media, online commerce, search engine, and generative AI companies have a bigger role in the political scheme of the U.S. than ever before. All of the people listed were even present at the presidential inauguration. Furthermore Meta, Google, and Amazon all donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign fund while Sam Altman personally donated $1 million and Elon Musk made himself the largest campaign donor in history donating a total of $288 million to help elect Trump as well as other Republican candidates. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and owner of X (formerly known as Twitter), is now a “Special Government Employee” according to the White House. He is currently in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency.
The idea of the revolution being “televised” was popularized in Gil Scott-Heron’s response to The Last Poets’ “When the Revolution Comes.” Scott-Heron paints a picture of the political climate and pop culture of the early 1970s in America, referencing political figures and other famous people like Richard Nixon, Spiro Agnew, General Creighton Abrams, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and others. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” was supposed to be a call to action against racism and is just as relevant today as it was in 1970 when the song was first performed live. In only three minutes and eight seconds, the song references several ad campaigns for many companies like Ultra Brite toothpaste, Listerine, and Hertz. It also directly names companies like Coca-Cola, Xerox, and the Schaefer Award Theatre.
Recently, Kendrick Lamar referenced the song during his Super Bowl performance saying, “The revolution is about to be televised; You picked the right time but the wrong guy.” Referring to Trump who was in attendance for the halftime show that he reportedly left early. One of Trump’s first Executive Orders after assuming office was EO 14151 “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI and Preferencing” which ended all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion across the U.S. With this executive order, Pam Bondi, the Attorney General has instructed the Department of Justice to criminally investigate companies that continue DEI programs. Trump also signed Executive Order 14173, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Returning Merit-Based Opportunity” which despite its name actually rescinded Lyndon B. Johnson’s EO 11246 which was signed in 1965 and stated that “It is the policy of the Government of the United States to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency. The policy of equal opportunity applies to every aspect of Federal employment policy and practice.”
Scott-Heron wrote “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” while watching baseball games in his dorm room at Lincoln College, an HBCU near Philadelphia, PA where Langston Hughes graduated from. It was originally a poem before being put over drums, bass, and flute for the album Pieces of a Man to create a funky jazz track that opens the album. Scott-Heron was a college student in the midst of unrest across America with many protesting for civil rights and against American involvement in Vietnam. One of the boldest lines in the song is “There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down brothers on the instant replay” emphasizing that the revolution is not to be watched like a spectator sport. This instant replay line brings to mind a modern incident regarding Meta and their political content policies. In early 2024, Meta added a new content setting that limited the political content that would appear on one’s feed. Meta did not make users aware of this new setting nor did they make anyone aware that it was automatically set to limit the political content on their feed. It wasn’t until videos showing people how to turn off the setting that people were even aware of it.
In the present day the advertisement references seem to have a different meaning than they did when the song was written. When the people behind some of the biggest companies in the world start befriending one of the most important people in international politics it becomes clear that they are serving each other more than the people.
Today it is important to keep your eyes and ears up and your phone down because when the owners and operators of our media, search engines, and technology are in control they have every ability to hide what they want.
“The revolution will not be televised,” nor will it be posted online, “The revolution will be live.” It will be happening on our streets, in our cities, it will be everywhere it can’t be hidden, right in front of your eyes.