Birth of Democracy: The Blood and the Beauty

As events in the Middle East have ignited, spread like a wildfire over the past two months—and with no end in sight—it has become practically impossible to not reflect on the region and what impetuses may have provided catalyst to such a sudden, stunning conflagration being felt in greater and lesser degrees of magnitude across an entire region.

That's a lot of words to simply say, "What in the heck is going on over there?"

I'm not a politician. I'm not a historian. I'm not a sociologist... and I'm probably not qualified to even form an opinion. However, when each and every day brings headlines of yet another country confronted with protesters (today it's Oman), one can't help but try to connect the dots between seemingly random city squares across the map in an effort to form some semblance of order from the chaos, to see the bigger picture.

Perhaps guilty of a typical, USA-centric mindset, my first reaction was to wonder, "Okay, what did we do now?" I mean, somehow this must be all our fault, right? We Americans can't seem to resist meddling in foreign affairs—particularly when there may be some fiscal advantage. I think we can all agree that in a region sitting atop such vast oil reserves, that particular eight hundred pound gorilla is a likely suspect.

For decades the U.S.A. has poured billions and billions of dollars into North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula in an effort to "maintain stability in the region." We like stability. It's kinda like strapping the victim to the gurney so he can't thrash around too much while we stick the needle in and drain his life blood—oil—away. I suspect we have quietly condoned and even promoted an assortment of autocratic, dictatorial leaders who are willing to subjugate and impoverish their people in exchange for long term power and untold personal wealth.

In fact, that measure of stability has been so effective that entire populations of people have not been permitted to evolve, to grow and prosper along with more progressive, industrialized communities of mankind.

Then along came the information age. I suppose if we have been, even in part, guilty for enabling the stagnation, for the suppression of volatility in the Middle East which may have prevented their people from divesting themselves of tyrannical regimes decades ago, then perhaps we can be forgiven if we also take a measure of the credit for advancing the demise of those same regimes through innovations that provide greater accessibility to information and ideas. The digital communication technologies we enjoy today actually have their origins in the nineteenth century with the American invention of the electromechanical telegraph and its ability to connect people across great distances.

I wonder if today’s Internet may ultimately be recognized by history as democracy's greatest tool in the twenty-first century. Unrestricted access to the World Wide Web has empowered people around the globe without consideration or bias to gender, age, ethnicity, religion or politics. We all have been given a voice, a platform, equal opportunity for self expression—the means to connect. Once experienced in the virtual world, that access to equality is bound to be reflected in people's desire for democratic reforms that can be measured and treasured in their day-to-day lives.

So, what in the heck is going on over there?

We are witnesses to the laborious, painful, bloody, beautiful birth of democracies. And if I can beg your pardon for feeling just USA-centric enough to accept a twinge of guilt and a share of the responsibility, at least I can hope they have our eyes... eyes with which to see their potential and their purpose, eyes to seek their own unique vision for their future.

~ Robin