Revolution what is it?

 

Revolution what is it?

The list of revolutions is long; the French Revelation, the American Revolution, the Communist Revolution in China and so on and so forth.  The Russian Revolution, the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and those past revolutions in Central and South America.

What about Castro’s revolution in Cuba?  The list goes on and on and there is no formula for revolution and no one can ever predict the final outcome.

Lenin once said, “It is all about POWER.  Who has the power?” 

Revolution is usually about the abuse of power and the people rising up to revolt against the abuse of power.  But the outcome is never certain and most of the time the revolutionaries don’t win.  For forty years Mubarak contained the brewing revolution in Egypt and then one day it just happened. 

The standard defense when the people take to the streets and demonstrate against dictators is the same.  The dictator claims the revolutionaries are terrorists, anarchist or worse. 

What happens after a revolution is also very different depending on who wins and who has the power.

The standard revolution produces another dictator.  Many times the world takes little notice of these revolutions, but they happen more often than revolutions that produce democracy.  Power changes hands in the third world mostly when one dictator takes over from another.

Sometimes the winners exact a terrible cost on the country.  The new rulers kill and imprison all the opposition.  Mao killed and imprisoned millions and this goes on even today in Communist China.  China has no real demonstrations, because those who oppose the rulers are either dead or in prison.

A little freedom is usually death for the dictator and the successful dictatorships allow almost no freedom. 

In general America likes dictators.  We support many around the world who provide us with things we want.  Our CEOs love Communist China and the cheap slave labor it provides and our oil companies love Saudi Arabia and their stable supply of crude.

When the dictator does what we like we simply don’t care how many people they kill or torture or put in prison.  In fact, many times we help them stay in power by providing them with training and military assistance.

Revolution is a crap shoot, it offers uncertainty and risk.  America hates uncertainty and risk and that is one reason we love and support dictators.

We loved and supported Saddam Hussein for almost a decade, until he went nuts and invaded his neighbor and then we had to hunt him down and kill him.

So should America support all revolutions?  We have a few going on right now; Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia to name a few.

Each is different and each represents both hope and risk. 

One thing we should have learned by now is that all revolutions are local and all outsiders are at risk of entering a family fight.  No one can impose a revolution on someone else.  By definition it is a local uprising and must be won by the people inside the country.  If that isn’t what happens, then it isn’t a revolution, it is an occupation.

We all hope the revolutions now underway bring a better form of government to the people.  But that may not happen.  Democracy is the hardest form of government to implement and the one that is the most difficult to teach people who have no history of freedom.

In America a group of Englishmen started a revolution with their homeland over the lack of freedom.  The revolutionary war lasted for over 8 years (1775–1783).  The Chinese revolution started over the American supported military dictatorship and the lack of freedom.  This revolution lasted 22 years (1927-1949) and put Communist dictators in power.  These two revolutions, both about freedom, produced two very different governments.

The fact is America has no real policy on dictators.  In my opinion we should always oppose them and we should refuse to deal with them until they change and provide freedom to their citizens.  But as long as there is money to be made, America will support dictators.

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