Blueprint for Revolution: how to use rice pudding, Lego men, and other non-violent techniques to galvanise communities, overthrow dictators, or simply change the world

by Srdja Popovic

One of the first things the activists did was buy several buckets of red food coloring. Then they waited for nightfall, crept up to a few fountains located in major squares throughout Damascus, and dropped the red dye into the water. The next morning, as the capital awoke to its morning gridlock, all of the fountains looked like they were spitting out blood, an apt visual metaphor for Assad’s brutal oppression. Enter the Keystone Kops: furious at the spectacle, the police sent entire squads to deal with the problem, but they soon learned that the only way to rid the fountains of their bloodlike hue was to wait for the coloring to circulate out of the system. In the meantime, Damascenes were treated to amusing scenes of cops crowding the fountains with confused looks on their faces, awaiting instructions from their superiors and generally looking like they had no clue what they were supposed to be doing. It took a week for the water to return to normal.