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this is not an essay
Watching the news coming out of Egypt this week, I keep being struck by one phrase, over and over again. "30-year rule."
I am a citizen of the United States. I was raised with the idea of a peaceful democracy, where every four years there is a more-or-less orderly transition of government. It is, I suspect, one of the reasons why we tend to take a lot of things we should protest against - because we know, sooner rather than later, we will get a voice in what comes next.
[how well that voice is heard, and the limitations of a majority voice vs a sizable minority voice, are things for another think]
The idea of a government - one leader, specifically - continuing for a decade, or several decades... I am a creature of my upbringing. I cannot think this is a healthy thing.
No matter how perfect a leader at point A, things change. Countries change, worlds change, people change. And the isolation/idolation of long-term leadership seems almost inevitably to lead -- if not to corruption, than certainly to disconnection. And then, near-inevitably, a refusal on the part of the people to be ignored.
If the two conflict, as they will... violence.
And, after so long a rule, a sense of the unknown, the unknowable. If the structure is broken down, where does the new structure come from?
I am, by training and preference, a historian, not a political theorist. I can't comment with specific accuracy on what's going on outside my own political surroundings, and I am hesitant to make comments about someone else's government when my own is hardly perfect. That's not only arrogant, it's rude. But history tells us that revolution - the disorderly change of a political structure -- is an unpredictable beast. Sometimes it leads to a better day, a stronger country, a healthier and vital nation.
Sometimes, it doesn't.
I have no idea what will come out of Egypt - indeed, the entire Middle East, in the immediate future, after this week. Perhaps nothing will change. Perhaps everything will. I hope that it will be healthy change. I hope that it will be peaceful, focused on bettering the lives of the people who birthed it in positive ways, creating a structure that will give them a voice, and a means to express their will, whatever that will might be.
Do I hope that it is also friendly to the western nations? Of course. I am tired of hate, I am tired of war, and I am tired of Us vs Them at a personal and a global level. (I am, I discover to my amusement, that much of an innocent). But I have also seen what happens, historically, when one government attempts to install a "friendly" regime somewhere else. Better to let the people choose.
I wish you good luck, Egypt. Good luck, to all of us.
EtA: Egypt is taken off-line by its government
The NYT updates the situation, as best they can
I am a citizen of the United States. I was raised with the idea of a peaceful democracy, where every four years there is a more-or-less orderly transition of government. It is, I suspect, one of the reasons why we tend to take a lot of things we should protest against - because we know, sooner rather than later, we will get a voice in what comes next.
[how well that voice is heard, and the limitations of a majority voice vs a sizable minority voice, are things for another think]
The idea of a government - one leader, specifically - continuing for a decade, or several decades... I am a creature of my upbringing. I cannot think this is a healthy thing.
No matter how perfect a leader at point A, things change. Countries change, worlds change, people change. And the isolation/idolation of long-term leadership seems almost inevitably to lead -- if not to corruption, than certainly to disconnection. And then, near-inevitably, a refusal on the part of the people to be ignored.
If the two conflict, as they will... violence.
And, after so long a rule, a sense of the unknown, the unknowable. If the structure is broken down, where does the new structure come from?
I am, by training and preference, a historian, not a political theorist. I can't comment with specific accuracy on what's going on outside my own political surroundings, and I am hesitant to make comments about someone else's government when my own is hardly perfect. That's not only arrogant, it's rude. But history tells us that revolution - the disorderly change of a political structure -- is an unpredictable beast. Sometimes it leads to a better day, a stronger country, a healthier and vital nation.
Sometimes, it doesn't.
I have no idea what will come out of Egypt - indeed, the entire Middle East, in the immediate future, after this week. Perhaps nothing will change. Perhaps everything will. I hope that it will be healthy change. I hope that it will be peaceful, focused on bettering the lives of the people who birthed it in positive ways, creating a structure that will give them a voice, and a means to express their will, whatever that will might be.
Do I hope that it is also friendly to the western nations? Of course. I am tired of hate, I am tired of war, and I am tired of Us vs Them at a personal and a global level. (I am, I discover to my amusement, that much of an innocent). But I have also seen what happens, historically, when one government attempts to install a "friendly" regime somewhere else. Better to let the people choose.
I wish you good luck, Egypt. Good luck, to all of us.
EtA: Egypt is taken off-line by its government
The NYT updates the situation, as best they can
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Is it okay if YOU think the cause is right? Or when I think it's right? Or when someone in the White House thinks it's in our political interest?
The reason I did not want to engage with Saladin on this is that he has a long and vocal history of "American government bad! Western civilization corrupt!" in almost any scenario, and he tried to use my words to back that up - when what I had actually said was "WE (the world) NEED TO STAY THE HELL OUT OF THIS AND LET THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE DECIDE."
That's the definition of a sovereign and democratic nation.
Yes, we should stand up and say "it's time to tear down that wall," as it were. And y'know something? People are doing exactly that. I did exactly that. The government, in its own self-protecting way, is doing that. Hell, even Israel, which has more to lose, at at a much higher risk, than anyone, is doing that.
So being lectured in my own 'living room' about what's going on? No, sorry. That's not discussion, and I don't have the desire to feed that particular troll.
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