Revolutions to Come
[col. writ. 2/26/11] (c) '11 Mumia Abu-Jamal
As fires of rebellion and resistance flash through ancient Arab
cities, the nations' pundits (especially those of the rightish
variety) warn us of impending doom, in the form of rising gas prices,
and the bugaboo of near-hysterical proportions -- Islamists.
But there's a funny thing about rebellions and revolutions. They
may begin one way, but no one - No One - knows where they will
end. That's the nature of revolutions!
The voices of America's pundit class have apparently forgotten
that the Founders that they like to revere and praise as Prophets of
Freedom, were -- well, revolutionaries, who stood against the most
powerful empire of the age -- the British (with a little help and
money from the French)
The very notion of having a nation without a king was, well -- a
revolutionary idea. That's why, when France had its revolution a few
years later, the crowned heads of Europe got together (conspired,
really) to beat them into the ground. For, back in those days, the
conventional wisdom was that kings and queens ruled by the will of
God; hence, the divine right of kings.
The American, French, and Haitian Revolutions put a real dent
into such notions.
Abe Lincoln, speaking as a Congressman in 1848, told his fellow
members: "It is a quality of revolutions not to go by old lines and
old laws; but to break up both, and make new ones."
The forces roiling today in several North African and Persian
Gulf countries have been held in check for generations by powerful,
repressive and ruthless governments, many of whom have been staunch
U.S. allies. The forces which have been unleashed in recent weeks
threatens to upend many, if not most of the old relationships and
understandings that formed the basis of U.S. Mid-East policy.
Remarkably, none of the 'experts' on the region, few of the
scholars, and virtually none of the talking heads on TV and cable had
a clue, until the dam broke and the boiling rage burst forth.
We have no idea when our where these forces will dissipate. They
may radiate for years. They may, indeed, spill out into other areas
of the world.
That too, is the nature of revolution.
--(c) '11 maj
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