The Five Voices of Revolution

How five fictional monologues reveal the real-world functions of dissent, sacrifice, and uprising

John Adams, founding father and second president of the United States, knew even while it was happening, that people would think of revolution of the United States as primarily a war. But he wanted to clarify what the source of revolution is. So he penned these words:

“What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people.”

- John Adams

Revolution is a matter of the mind. It finds itself first in our heads, birthed in our thinking. I want to explore what kind of thinking has the effect and consequences that in retrospect are called revolutions.

So let's explore five voices from within a revolution, and how they show us the way in speaking up against tyranny. I also think these voices provide an example for living our lives within an unjust system or overreaching empire, almost like roles we can play when our voices are needed.

The five voices of revolution I want to highlight were created and written by Tony Gilroy, shaped in collaboration by a writer's room that included Stephen Schiff, Beau Willimon, Dan Gilroy, and Tom Bissell. They crafted a tightly constructed model of resistance to authoritarian control, and I think it's worth examining for this reason. Within this tyrannical empire, a handful of characters deliver monologues that function as more than exposition or world-building.

These are more than simple speeches, they are declarations of revolution. I think they helps us learn how to speak and act in such times, and they come to us as part revolutionary philosophy, part warning, and part instruction. Together, they map out a moral and strategic framework for how people, both ordinary and extraordinary, might confront tyranny.

Here are the five voices, or five roles, and how they've inspired me for how we might all live beyond this fiction, in our own real life stories:

The Hidden Strategist

This character is not public. He moves through shadows, trades in secrets, and pays privately for every move he makes. This character gives his speech in response to someone questioning his level of commitment. He is asked, "And what do you sacrifice?" The question implies his sacrifice is easier, or safer. The Hidden Strategist character confesses the toll he has paid in his response.

"Calm. Kindness. Kinship. Love. I've given up all chance at inner peace. I've made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there's only one conclusion: I'm damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight—they've set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost, and by the time I looked down, there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!"*

This Hidden Strategist is broken, bitter, worn, pessimistic, and past the point of turning back. He carries weight for others and finds no relief in doing so. But it is what is needed. The cost is too great, near total. But it is required. And he will pay it.

Some forms of resistance are visible. Others are quiet, even secret; but they are radical nonetheless, perhaps more so. You may find yourself protecting someone, taking a risk others will never know about. You may make sacrifices no one will thank you for, and might even blame you for. Some who fight will not ever recognize the intensity with which you fought for the same cause. They may think you're doing it wrong. But those actions still shape the world we build together. They are the fabric future overcoming victories will be sewn into, and the Hidden Strategist is ready to do their essential part, sewing it all together in the shadows.

The Institutional Dissenter

A senator, nervous at the potential cost yet unflinching in the face of overwhelming opposition, speaks to her peers as a politician. She is speaking out from inside the establishment to dissent from the actions of the majority. Her words defend those without power and the oppressed. A good deal of Machiavellian maneuvering behind the scenes was required before this moment. But once it comes she leaves nothing left unsaid and goes the distance, even if it costs her everything, and she seems to know it will.

“Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries.... Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions and we’ve certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come. I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber’s hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza. What took place yesterday… what happened yesterday on Ghorman was unprovoked genocide! Yes! Genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest? The monster we’ve helped create? The monster who will come for us all soon enough is [the] Emperor...”*

This Institutional Dissenter speech reveals the danger of keeping silent inside systems of power that have yielded to authoritarianism. The senator knows she will not be applauded for this speech, in fact she has made plans for escape as she knows if she doesn't she will be arrested, interrogated, and eventually killed for this solitary voice against oppression. She also knows that saying nothing is worse than the consequences of using her voice. She gives up all of her immense privilege in a single moment of total sacrifice, letting others know it is the time to do the same.

Most people are not revolutionaries. But some are teachers, attorneys, medical workers, drivers, office workers, engineers, and yes: public servants. Speaking out from within a flawed system can feel lonely, but it is necessary. You can be the voice that questions, corrects, or cautions when everyone else is nodding along or ignoring the problem. That resistance matters even though it puts an uncomfortable, maybe even dangerous, spotlight on the Institutional Dissenter.

The Visionary Idealist

This character is a young revolutionary, a radical thinker, and kind of a nerdy warrior-poet who becomes a casualty of the struggle. Before his valiant death, he leaves behind a manifesto to inspire others.

"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly.... There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And remember this: the imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of... empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this: Try."*

The particular Visionary Idealist speaks in the prophetic voice. A bone-deep believer who does not live to see the impact of his words. He casts truth into the future, hoping someone, somewhere will receive the spoken or written words and they will fall upon fertile ground, growing into something more powerful than even the one who spoke the words or wrote them down. The Visionary Idealist is speaking into existence the hopeful future that overwhelms the crushing reality of the present.

We all begin somewhere. You may not lead armies or draft legislation. But your voice, written or spoken, has weight. You might write a piece of policy analysis, a letter to a local paper, an article or blog, a sermon or a poem about injustice. Or maybe you share a thought others were afraid to say aloud, and they might use those lines later as motivation for their own random acts of insurrection. That alone is enough to shift someone closer to action, and so the Visionary Idealist chooses to speak when others do not have the words.

The Reluctant Leader

A hardened labor prisoner foreman becomes a reluctant insurgent. In a single moment, he decides to risk everything, not for his own life, but for those beside him. He has credibility among his prisoner peers that cannot be earned overnight, and he is reluctant to spend those chips or put others at risk. But once he decides to spend his chips, he goes all in, willing to give up everything once he casts them on the table.

"Wherever you are right now, get up, stop the work. Get out of your cells, take charge, and start climbing. They don't have enough guards, and they know it. If we wait until they figure that out, it'll be too late. We will never have a better chance than this, and I would rather die trying to take them down than giving them what they want…. We know that they are making up our sentences as we go along. We know that no one outside here knows what's happening. And now we know that when they say we are being released, we are being transferred to some other prison to go and die, and that ends today! There is one way out. Right now, the building is ours. You need to run, climb, kill! You need to help each other. You see someone who's confused, someone who is lost, you get them moving, and you keep them moving until we put this place behind us. There are 5,000 of us. If we can fight half as hard as we've been working, we will be home in no time. One way out! One way out! One way out!”*

This Reluctant Leader monologue delivers no complex strategy. He just offers resolve, compassion, instructions, and clarity. He does not want to be a leader, but the moment demands it. Survival and desperation itself drafts him into service, and he does not shy away from the moment once it arrives with urgency.

Leadership change often looks like stepping up when others are afraid, or even when afraid yourself. You do not have to have a plan. You just need enough courage to act in a single moment. Stand up for a colleague, speak out at a meeting, or fight a policy that harms people. The credibility and experience you've earned in one arena can be used in another for good. Action often starts with just one leader rising from the crowd, regardless of how much power that Reluctant Leader has.

The Communal Conscience

A local and fairly inconsequential elderly woman is beloved in her community. After her death, she speaks posthumously to friends and neighbors gathered for her funeral. She has no more time to act, but she uses her final words recorded and shown at her funeral to reckon with her complicity and spark a new beginning. She speaks from regret, challenging others to not make the same mistake.

"My name is Maarva.... I'm honored to stand before you. I'm honored to be a Daughter of Ferrix, and honored to be worthy of the stone. Strange, I... feel as if I can see it. I was six, I think, first time I touched a funerary stone. Heard our music, felt our history. Holding my sister's hand as we walked all the way from Fountain Square. Where you stand now, I've been more times than I can remember. I always wanted to be lifted. I was always eager, always waiting to be inspired. I remember every time it happened, every time the dead lifted me... with their truth. And now I'm dead. And I yearn to lift you. Not because I want to shine or even be remembered. It's because I want you to go on…. In my waning hours, that's what comforts me most. But I fear for you. We've been sleeping. We've had each other... our work, our days. We had each other, and they left us alone. We kept the trade lanes open, and they left us alone. We took their money and ignored them, we kept their engines churning, and the moment they pulled away, we forgot them. Because we had each other. But we were sleeping. I've been sleeping. And I've been turning away from the truth I wanted not to face. There is a wound that won't heal.... There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. We let it grow, and now it's here. It's here and it's not visiting anymore. It wants to stay. The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness. It is never more alive than when we sleep. It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true, maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late. But I'll tell you this... If I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting these bastards from the start. Fight the Empire!"*

This Communal Conscience speech represents the turning of the tide. She is neither politician nor soldier. She holds no office nor has much weight in her world beyond relationships. But she represents the resilient power of community. She names her own inaction as sleep and invites others to wake up, not making the mistakes she did. Her words are enough to spark action at a time it was most needed.

You may be that person in your community, your family, or your workplace. You don’t have to be the loudest. You don't even need to have a track record of success or impressive feats of action. You just need friends, family, colleagues: those who love you and trust you. When someone like you speaks, people listen, at minimum those who know you, at most even those who can relate to you. Your ordinariness is not a weakness in this regard, it is a strength. Your failures are not a problem, they are the transparent reality that the future victories can be built upon. Admit where you waited too long. Then act in a way that is uniquely you as a Communal Conscience, so others feel invited to join the movement.

Why Do These Voices Matter?

Each character is shaped by different circumstances, but the writers make them resonate because their roles are recognizable.

• The Hidden Strategist sacrifices from the shadows for the larger purpose.

• The Institutional Dissenter speaks confrontational truths from within the system.

• The Visionary Idealist dreams of a preferred future for those who follow.

• The Reluctant Leader leverages their credibility for urgent action.

• The Communal Conscience reminds us it’s not too late; until it is.

Each of these require putting personal moral clarity and conviction about injustice into motion. Risk, sacrifice, solidarity, and confession will be your companions. You don’t need to play all five roles. Nobody speaks with all these voices at once. You only have one voice, one role. And that’s good, because a variety of voices, even other kinds not mentioned here, are needed in the movement. Revolution is not a solo act; revolution requires a choir.

“A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” - The Declaration of Independence, 1776

What role are you hoping to fill, and if not yet hoping, perhaps just willing to play if needed? What voice or role in a revolution beyond these five would you suggest is missing? What lies in wait in you that might come out when the time is right or that you’ve been attempting to live out of late, or for a long time? Leave a comment to let us know your thoughts.*

*All of monologues used in this article are from the award winning series Andor. I have added bold emphases to each monologue. I did not mention where they were from for fear many readers might dismiss the content out of hand because of the source material. The quality of the show most praised of all happens to be the impeccable writing, even if the rest of it is not your thing. If you have interest, the show is complete with 2 seasons available on Disney+