Inshallah

Just as humans have dammed the great rivers of the world, so too have we constructed governments for the worlds great populations. And just as dams only function for a specific time and then are washed away, so too with the institutions. Today their are some people in Egypt, Tunisa, Jordan and Yemen that are trying to break the dam and let the flood of change wash over the land.

Spinoza once commented that "Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a precise picture of it". Indeed the Arab world suffered a great deal and now seems to be seeing things clearly. Their centuries of suffering and subjugation have finally come to this cathartic moment where for some dying is preferable to living under the current circumstances. I feel for those people who are prepared to take that plunge, especially when one considers how very common extreme violence is in Arab culture.

The thing that saddens me about this situation is that the Egyptians are living in a cell which is just one of many in a massive prison that is the modern world. Already the instability is leading to bread shortages, looting and capital flight. Even if they manage to oust Mubarak, they can't really do what they want because they are dependent on the global economy to feed them. That system is itself reliant on the Suez Canal. They are caught in the straight jacket of modern interdependency, and so sadly their revolution is in the long run just an exercise in futility. Just as the great dam at Aswan can't be destroyed without destroying most Egyptians, the same goes for the modern Capitalist system. I believe though that these things must at least be attempted because 'those who do not move do not notice their chains'. It is also important in my mind that we keep trying and failing if only to add another footnote in the long saga that is mankind's struggle to live with itself. We have so very much to learn so we desperately need lessons such as these to teach us.

Here is a quote from Sayyid Qutb that I feel speaks to the current situation- " Indeed our words will remain lifeless, barren, devoid of any passion, until we die as a result of these words, whereupon our words will suddenly spring to life and live amongst the hearts that are dead, bringing them to life as well."

Versailles

If I were to define history at all I'd say it is like God was described by Voltaire, a comedian playing to an audience too scarred to laugh. Wandering the epicenter of Monarchical decadence at Versailles the burlesque of modern history gave me much to consider. The thought train left the station headed in this direction, and as usual it's last stop was quoteville-

While staring out over the mammoth geometric gardens that emanate from the palace I of course was thinking of revolutionaries swarming over the grounds like angry ants on October 6th 1789. What drove the Parisian mob was a desire for affordable food, not any abstract ideology. This is clearly seen by the way in which after a few years of the Jacobin party they embraced Napoleon as an Emperor because he delivered the goods. During the Belle Époque (1871-1914) the lives of many commoners improved greatly and is generally seen as a Golden Age for Western Europe. And indeed bourgeois rule was an improvement in the sense that it provided a broader section of the population access to nice things such as sanitation, transportation and food. Happy days for Europe, even if it came at the price of the most reckless and ruthless round of Imperialism seen yet, but hey, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs; and they thought the eggs were inherently inferior and somehow being helped anyway so that logic worked out nicely.

These thoughts gave me some chuckles, but they led me to that dark and less amusing place that most historical musings take me, the present. So after the great wars in which Europe almost killed each other entirely because of their sadistic love of organized violence a new era emerged in which the entire purpose of the state was to deliver material wealth to the citizenry. There was some debate as to how best achieve this (see Cold War) but in the end the triumph of Consumer Capitalism and Globalization has come through with another era of glorious advancement for the cause of people attaining their own individual Versailles. It's not pretty how we reach such dizzying heights of Civilization, but it seems in our rationale the ends justify the means. After these thoughts had finished traversing my neurons I sat looking at the crowds of well off tourists who were meandering all about me taking in the vastness of the palatial gardens all looking rather pleased with themselves. It was then that the thought dawned on me that this age will also draw to an abrupt and bloody end. Us who have inherited this phenomenal system that funnels the worlds consumables to our insatiable markets are just like the Monarchs of old. And just as those castles made of sand slipped into the sea of history so shall ours. As always with mankind's chronicle, the joke is on those who are living in its raucous reality.

"Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream" -William Cowper

"I don't know what's gonna happen, man, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames." -Jim Morrison (and possibly the motto for all moderns)

"Riches serve a wise man but command a fool." – Old French proverb

المصائب لا تأتي فرادى (disasters don't come one by one)

Being in Paris, news of the overthrow of Ben Ali in Tunisia was the talk of the town. Like most of post-colonial Africa, nepotism, kleptocracy and all other manner of injustice is just standard operating practices. This would seem the primary legacy left by Europeans, and the lesson was learned well by those who came to power after colonialism went out of fashion. The big story however, is that it wasn't a military coup that toppled Ben Ali, it was rioting. This is a big deal in the Arab world because it just doesn't happen. Already demonstrations have taken place in Jordan with the protesters claiming inspiration from Tunisia and Egypt has been becoming more unruly for some time now, so they will surely take heart at this example of defiance. The West doesn't even bother justifying their continued support of these regimes because it is so clear they are both ruthless and irredeemably corrupt. There is a proverb in Arabic that goes- 'A person who does not speak out against the wrong is a mute devil'. Unlike the hypocrite politicians of the developed world, I can't blame those in the Arab world for not speaking out since it is the most repressive and sanguinary of governments they are challenging; all of which are rather open about sending innumerable people to the torture chamber and anonymous graves for just such activity. Still the tide is getting rather tumultuous of late on board the boat which these dictators sail. How long they will last is anyones guess. In all fairness, they could outlast all the rest in the world by sheer tenacity. However, 'He who swings an aggressive sword will die by one' is another proverb of these people that surely factors into their thinking. On another note in the region, it appears there will be no campaign against Iran this year because the US and Israel launched a cyberworm that in conjunction with the assassination of two nuclear physicists has slowed their quest for the bomb enough so that the issue can be put off for a while longer yet. The government of Lebanon, the only Arab democracy, fell when Hezbollah pulled its members out of the coalition. They said they were doing so because the UN was blaming them for the assassination of PM Rafik Hariri; proving yet again that UN stands for unbelievably naive. Despite all this, I still want to go visit them.

The Art of War

Today I explored the musée de l'Armée, a wonderful temple to organized violence and its role in French history. I had never really understood the concept of there being an art of war, but now it is clear that fighting can be raised to a very high level of art indeed. After the fall of Rome to nomadic hordes, the kingdoms that evolved existed solely on their ability in military prowess. The entire era from the 6th to the 18th Centuries was one long drawn out blood bath in which the successful waging of war was the justification for authority and the basis for all borders in Europe. In 1789 things evolved a bit when some people from Paris thought they had had enough of their Aristocracy so they marched on Versailles and toppled the Bourbon kings. As was rather natural, the other Elites of Europe got rather uncomfortable with this challenge to the established order and all descended on France to teach these uppity commoners a lesson. What then happened changed the nature of warfare. The French fought back by eventually ordering a levee en masse of all able bodied men and they were able to not only repel the invading armies but even expand their borders. This has been accepted as the birth of the modern state and nationalism. By getting every young man under arms and having them fight passionately for their country they proved this was vastly superior in its ability to kill lots of foreigners. The Prussians went one further (largely in response to the French) and created a mandatory conscription with a reserve force which greatly increased the number of people who could fight as well as a group of officers whose job it was to sit around and plan out as many possible wars as they could think of to prepare. This led to Europe mobilizing 74 million men for the ultimate art of war show- World War I. Not having had enough of it, they even did a sequel a few decades later. So as I walked around the Musee d'Armee and looked at all the memorabilia of this evolution of the French through war all I could think about was that this is their history. Violence is what has defined them culturally, and Europe and its progeny around the world have embraced killing on a scale that has dumbfounded and terrified the rest of the planet. Every other aspect of their culture is based upon this penchant for violence, and is indeed largely a byproduct of it. It's the only reason I can find why Westerners will over consume even if it means you have to conquer the whole planet to do so. If you disagree with this then imagine a Europe that never developed militarily... It's not that they invented warfare, they just raised it to the level of an art, and became obsessed with the medium. As always, some words from the Ages-

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of War." -Shakespeare

"We should not ask 'Why does an event like the Great War occur?' But rather, given our nature, 'Why does it not occur more often?' -Jorge Luis Borges

"War is organised murder, and nothing else." -Harry Patch (last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches in WWI)

The District of Columbia

"Ours is the only country founded on a good idea."

-John Gunther

After spending a week in Washington DC, soaking up the sights and history, I agree with the above quote. The founders of this country were a strange varied crew, yet they managed to create a document and a system of government out of thin air and it has come to dominate the world. As I wandered through the Library of Congress and beheld the world largest book collection it struck me that this land of my birth is truly breathtaking in what it has done and become. Those who conceived of this country and wrote the constitution to give it dimensions surely knew not what would come of it, and even admitted so openly. This phantasmagoria that is modern America and what a rowdy role we now play on the world stage would give those long dead men that set us on this path something to behold. The complex interrelation between what our history is, our perception of ourselves, and then how we act is quite possibly the most insane balancing act than any group of people have ever attempted. Maybe that explains why the extreme polarities in our society never seem to challenge the system, because it seems to thrive of it, as indeed was apparently the plan. As is so often my mind wanders me into a corner out of which only a great quote can extricate me, and so here is one from Hegel- "America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World's History shall reveal itself." Hegel