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Feb. 13th, 2011 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittydesadeIt's like some bizarre cross between Risk and tabletop RPGs. Okay, everyone, that was a Total Party (haha) Kill, everyone roll up new governments.
I mean, seriously?? The Palestinian government is preparing to resign for elections, Tunisia's President quit, prompting a mass exodus that's driving Italy nuts, and they're already facing the righteous wrath of their women in the face of their President's asshaberdasherie. Yemen is going nuts, so is Bahrain,, both of them seem to be somewhat less ... polite? Lucky? Than Egypt. I've heard things about Saudi Arabia, but Syria may still be keeping its head down. Oh, and let's not forget Algiers. I just. I don't... I'm sure there's historical precedent for this somewhere, and if I think hard enough I can probably even find one, but it's 10.30 at night and my brain was about to shut down when Anna pasted me the bit about the Palestinian government and I choked on an Oreo.
And part of me is eager and hopeful and wants to see what comes of this. These are good things. Change is a good thing, democratic government that happens because the people want it and not because the United States of Jackassery decides that these countries need to be People's Democratic Republics of Whatever. It's a Trope, I'm serious, and I do not link you because that site is made of evil gravity, but it seems to be a trope and a tradition that the more synonym's for "free people" and "democracy" a country jams in the title, the less free it actually is. I'm pretty sure the US is to blame for a handful of them. Go covert ops. Anyway.
And then a part of me remembers what revolution really usually is. It's people getting angry, it's people in power getting desperate, it's people in power funding people with weapons to deal with the people getting angry, and a whole lot of pent up emotions and boiling over and eventually a whole lot of corpses. Sometimes not so many, but usually at least some. And then a whole lot of rebuilding. Even if you do win, even if it is somewhat peaceful, as Egypt does, there's still the recovery process. All that adrenaline in all those people easing down, and nothing comes with a quick fix. You can't just push a reset button. Trash still needs to be collected, criminals still need to be caught, the streets still need to be maintained. Children need to go to school, usually. Hospitals need to function, government hospitals, some of them. And these are all things that can't just stop because the government is being overhauled from the inside out. Which makes it even more complicated, and take even longer. Hell, we're still working on getting our own house in order, and we haven't even had a revolution in a couple hundred years. (Yet.) It takes time. And all that frustration, and all that desperation, it needs to go somewhere, right?
That's not even touching on the effect this is going to have on us in the United States, or other governments that, let's face it, are used to the Middle East and North Africa (among others) being a hotbed of soft dictatorship. We're used to having things be the way they've been for the last thirty years. Whatever happens, things will not be the same. And we have to deal with that. And given that at least in the US the split between parties and their policies just keep growing, I can only hope that we'll deal with that peacefully, diplomatically, and with open minds. Really, really hope.
And I guess what it comes down to is there is so much energy being ramped up in that area, all that energy has to go somewhere. It can overturn in chaos and panic and destruction, or we can somehow ride it all out as a planet of reasonable, interconnected people... interconnected in ways we've never been before. And manage to make this world a little better at the end of it.
I'm tired. I'm going to finish my writing and go to bed, I apologize if I've made some offensive generalizations with this post, I'm not thinking too clearly right now. Polite discussions are welcome, though I probably won't try to tag back till tomorrow morning.
Good god, y'all.
I mean, seriously?? The Palestinian government is preparing to resign for elections, Tunisia's President quit, prompting a mass exodus that's driving Italy nuts, and they're already facing the righteous wrath of their women in the face of their President's asshaberdasherie. Yemen is going nuts, so is Bahrain,, both of them seem to be somewhat less ... polite? Lucky? Than Egypt. I've heard things about Saudi Arabia, but Syria may still be keeping its head down. Oh, and let's not forget Algiers. I just. I don't... I'm sure there's historical precedent for this somewhere, and if I think hard enough I can probably even find one, but it's 10.30 at night and my brain was about to shut down when Anna pasted me the bit about the Palestinian government and I choked on an Oreo.
And part of me is eager and hopeful and wants to see what comes of this. These are good things. Change is a good thing, democratic government that happens because the people want it and not because the United States of Jackassery decides that these countries need to be People's Democratic Republics of Whatever. It's a Trope, I'm serious, and I do not link you because that site is made of evil gravity, but it seems to be a trope and a tradition that the more synonym's for "free people" and "democracy" a country jams in the title, the less free it actually is. I'm pretty sure the US is to blame for a handful of them. Go covert ops. Anyway.
And then a part of me remembers what revolution really usually is. It's people getting angry, it's people in power getting desperate, it's people in power funding people with weapons to deal with the people getting angry, and a whole lot of pent up emotions and boiling over and eventually a whole lot of corpses. Sometimes not so many, but usually at least some. And then a whole lot of rebuilding. Even if you do win, even if it is somewhat peaceful, as Egypt does, there's still the recovery process. All that adrenaline in all those people easing down, and nothing comes with a quick fix. You can't just push a reset button. Trash still needs to be collected, criminals still need to be caught, the streets still need to be maintained. Children need to go to school, usually. Hospitals need to function, government hospitals, some of them. And these are all things that can't just stop because the government is being overhauled from the inside out. Which makes it even more complicated, and take even longer. Hell, we're still working on getting our own house in order, and we haven't even had a revolution in a couple hundred years. (Yet.) It takes time. And all that frustration, and all that desperation, it needs to go somewhere, right?
That's not even touching on the effect this is going to have on us in the United States, or other governments that, let's face it, are used to the Middle East and North Africa (among others) being a hotbed of soft dictatorship. We're used to having things be the way they've been for the last thirty years. Whatever happens, things will not be the same. And we have to deal with that. And given that at least in the US the split between parties and their policies just keep growing, I can only hope that we'll deal with that peacefully, diplomatically, and with open minds. Really, really hope.
And I guess what it comes down to is there is so much energy being ramped up in that area, all that energy has to go somewhere. It can overturn in chaos and panic and destruction, or we can somehow ride it all out as a planet of reasonable, interconnected people... interconnected in ways we've never been before. And manage to make this world a little better at the end of it.
I'm tired. I'm going to finish my writing and go to bed, I apologize if I've made some offensive generalizations with this post, I'm not thinking too clearly right now. Polite discussions are welcome, though I probably won't try to tag back till tomorrow morning.
Good god, y'all.