I think I saw a clip of an interview with Gil Scott-Heron (who wrote The Revolution Will Not Be Televised) about how the meaning of that text to him was that the urge for revolution will not be awakened externally, but that each must go through that process internally. Or at least that's how I understood that. Here is that clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZvWt29OG0s