Extremists
Insurrectionists
Supremacists
Terrorists
V ‘The Event’
A Color Revolution can only be officially initiated after an ‘Event’. This Event must be controversial and polarizing (or framed to be so), and it releases all of the Movement’s built-up energy. The Movement physically manifests itself in the most public way possible, and all of its parts operate to their maximum possible capacity. The Event is the ‘coming out’ for the Movement, and it is the trigger for the Color Revolution.
Events are selectively exploited, and the Movement may ignore a certain event if it does not feel that the Infrastructure necessary to successfully carry out the Color Revolution is adequate. Therefore, it will wait until another Event arises, or it may work to manufacture or provoke an Event. The Movement capitalizes upon an Event only after it has operated a successful information campaign. The Media Infrastructure may or may not be fully built by the time the decision is made to exploit the Event, as this level is closely tied to the Event itself. It may be that Media Infrastructure is not utilized until after the Event itself, in order to set the stage and prepare the public psyche for the Color Revolution. It all depends on the situation itself and the decision of the Movement and its sponsors.
Examples of Events are the following:
A rigged election
The jailing of an opposition leader
The signing of (or failure to sign) a controversial piece of legislation
A government crackdown against the opposition or the imposition of martial law
Declaring or being involved in an unpopular war
The above are but a few of the examples of what can constitute the Event. It is not important that these events actually occur in fact or not. What is pivotal is how they are perceived, framed, and narrated to the public at large. Allegations, not proof, of the above are what is most important in creating the catalyst for an Event. It must always be remembered that the Movement can provoke any of these events (or the perception that they had occurred).
But it can never happen here, right?