Politics 2.0

ITS JUST A JUMP TO THE LEFT....

Roughly 4 years ago, the world was caught by catch phrases describing the different waves of democratic revolutions spreading across the world. There was the Rose Revolution in Georgia where the people selected a western leaning government, an island in a sea of former Soviet states. Along with this change was the orange revolution in Ukraine and the Cedar revolution in Lebanon. Although these victories and “winds of change” sound quite Obama-ist, it was actually under George W. Bush’s doctrine of universal freedom in which these seeds grew.

As we all know, 4 years down the road, Bush is gone, Lebanon was pulvarised in war and internal conflict and so too was Georgia. The Russians have never been more suspicious of NATO since the end of the Cold War. The world in the past few years has become harder, more radical with iron fist governments and strong willed leaders in their command.

Yet the events of the past few weeks have shown that there is an alternative to radicalism and repressive governments. The tide of inevitability towards fundamental polarisation has subsided briefly. In Lebanon, the pro western conciliatory Hariri government won in an election that could have spelled the end of a Maronite-Muslim Lebanon with a new Iranian-Syrian proxy. In Iran, even though the elections had the trademarks of not being free and fair and considering the system itself is selectively democratic, the populous of Iran are rising up to show that Ahmedinejad is not the monolithic voice of the country.

Yet, revolutions always lead to counter-revolutionists and we can always return to a pattern of popular demonstrations of freedom being set up for a conflict or bitter revenge from the reactionists leading to war and more uncertainty. The Cedar revolution was short lived and the Rose revolution was only met by eventual war.

The zeitgeist of the people determines how the hardliners will react to the people who select liberty instead of lunacy. The stronger the will for freedom, the stronger the reaction from the conservatives. It ultimately leads to a coin toss to determine which group has the stronger will to live according to their ideals.