The Slaves Are Deshackling

Whether we know it or not, we are witnessing historical events unfold.

The slaves are waking up, and they are realising that they do not like the boss. Instead of taking the tried, tested (and failed) uniquely British route of writing a stern letter to ones MP, they are taking to the streets. In massive numbers. It is working.

And that is, was and always will be the secret: we outnumber the boss, and his sycophantic followers, by millions upon millions. We, the people of this sovereign nation, terrify them. They know that we will rise up when we (finally) learn that writing stern letters just doesn't work any more. (If it ever did).

Did you spot the pattern during the Tunisian, then the Egyptian protests? World 'leaders' queued up on the tellybox, first to support people like Ben Ali, then Mubarak, and when they saw which way the wind was blowing, they switched allegiance to the people of both nations. They (we) support these despots for as long as it suits them (us). I say us because it is our money that our leaders bung these guys. They keep them sweet for all sorts of reasons: they claim that they stabilise a region, or that they must be supported to keep the desperately needed hydrocarbons flowing.

As soon as they noticed that the people weren't going home, even when the "parent rule" was invoked. (I honestly almost wet myself laughing when I heard the newly crowned vice president (Omar Suleiman) say, live on air, "We ask that all parents tell their children to leave Tahrir Square, and come home"). You naughty young people, you! Fancy thinking for yourselves! That will never do. Uncle Omar's days are numbered though, I do hope someone has told him. I also hope that someone has explained to the Egyptians that democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be. They had the perfect system for about 18 days. It's called anarchy.

I think that these protests, and the subsequent overthrowing of dictators can be summed up in one word: communication.

Clever tyrants would never allow their slaves to communicate. Clever tyrants control the airwaves (radio, television, the internet, and even cellular phone networks) because if the slaves can't communicate, they will never be able to coordinate, to gather, and to voice their displeasure at the shenanigans of the elite. The rich fat cats at the top of the totem pole, the longer they stay in office, the more their arrogance grows. They rely on their familiars to tell them what is happening outside the palace, and the lickspittles do what lickspittles have always done: they tell the MFIC whatever he wants to hear.

Anger is now growing in sub-Saharan nations. Bob Mugabe, the syphilis-ridden mong in charge of Zimbabwe has had his goons block stories on Tunisia and Egypt, (and Yemen and Jordan and Morocco) lest his slaves hear that there is an option. Beyond the ballot box, which in Africa is fiddled more than old Yehudi's favourite instrument, there is another way. Peaceful protest, staggering courage and superhuman patience. That's all the Tunisians and the Egyptians used. No bombs, no bullets, no violence. Because they knew the police and the army had bigger bombs, more bullets and extensive training in being violent.

This blogpost/report suggests that there are several countries seeking their own freedom. Countries like Libya, Sudan, Gabon, Uganda, Cameroon, Congo, Nigeria, Angola and Senegal.

All will blow eventually, but now that some of their citizens have been shown the way, I think that "eventually" will be an awful lot closer than it was yesterday.

A salutary lesson is here for us all: if we desire change, democracy and its (largely) failed usage of the ballot box is not the only way.

And no, our situations are not comparable. We do not have a super-alert government team keeping an ever closer eye on us, we do not suffer regular beatings & killings by the police, we do not have corrupt politicians feathering their own nests, we do not have the money supply artificially inflated as a control mechanism, we do not have an unaccountable but wealthy elite governing us....oh, wait.

Yes. Yes we do.

Is it because our chains aren't all that visible yet?

One of these days......

CR.