The Old Media — not to mention Hillary Clinton’s comic relief State Department — apparently don’t have a clue what’s really going on. Conservative talk radio already assumes that the whole thing has been orchestrated by militant “Islamists”, in particular, the 80-year-old Muslim Brotherhood. Whenever you see that word, mentally remove the first R to get a clearer picture if what they’re really up to.
The Botherhood of Man is gonna gitcha if you don’t look out.
But I digress.
America’s home grown would-be dictators clearly believe “It can’t happen here”, as demonstrated by their reactions — dazed at first, then hysterical — to the far gentler rise of the Tea Parties and the results of the 2010 election, which they are trying to believe never happened. They’ve spent all of their time since, not changing so that they won’t be despised any more, but trying to shut their critics up by destroying talk radio and requiring individuals to have Internet permits.
[. . .]
Out of sheer habit, if nothing else, it is very difficult not make the same mistake as the pundits and politicians. As Robert A. Heinlein observed, every revolution is a freak. By definition there can be no rules to govern or even understand them, and we must avoid thinking collectively about them. There are as many reasons to rebel as there are rebels, and that’s the only important truth we’ll ever glean from them.
It’s also very difficult to say from what we know now, and I could easily be wrong (I have been before), but it seems to me that this is not a fundamentalist uprising like we saw in Iran a generation ago — although the fundamentalists are desperately trying to coopt it — but an essentially secular revolt by the productive class against both fundamentalism and the fascist management states that dominate the region.
L. Neil Smith, “Egyptian Tea Party”, Libertarian Enterprise, 2011-01-30
January 31, 2011
QotD: A hopeful view of Egypt’s way forward
1 Comment
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I’ve found a nearly universal truth that prosperous societies/regions/countries never (or at least rarely) feel the need for uprising, revolt, civil war, invasion, etc. In this instance, it is important to differentiate prosperity through one’s own efforts, from the placation of a welfare state. In fact, the illusory and temporary welfare state’s attempts at placation have led to more uprisings than most other modern examples of warfare.
Modern Israel was founded in the same barren desert region and agrarian economy that still typifies virtually all of its neighbors to this day, but despite being under external siege almost constantly for the last 40+ years, it enjoys a mostly self-sufficient thriving modern economy. If the typical Israeli was as impoverished as most in the Middle East, the nearly constant attacks would have decades ago lead to a massive exodus of refugees and the abandonment of Israel as a Jewish state. Here again, it’s important to differentiate between Israel’s defensive actions, and its neighbor’s repeated attempts to invade Israel.
While Israel is a unique case, one can look elsewhere to find examples of prosperity = peace. When was the last time Switzerland or the Cayman Islands invaded another country?
(Note – Just in case there are any trolls lurking, forget about trying to conflate the U.S. defense of Kuwait, et al, or the enforcement of the 1991 Iraqi cease-fire agreement, with actual invasions.)
Comment by Junk Science Skeptic — January 31, 2011 @ 18:22