Mystic Politics

What the French Revolution Tells Us About Today’s Activist Movements http://mys.tc/29y

Gene Sharp: A Dictator’s Worst Nightmare

84-Year-Old Gene Sharp is an unlikely Revolutionary, but his ideas to overthrow repressive regimes are literally revolutionary

Do you think there would have been an Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street without him?

Revolution vs. Counterrevolution: Whatever Happened to the Arab Spring?

‘Caught off-guard by the initial wave of the Arab Spring in Egypt and Tunisia, the US and its allies struck back with a vengeance. They employed a number of simultaneous tactics to sabotage the Arab Spring. These included (1) instigating fake instances of the Arab Spring in countries that were/are headed by insubordinate regimes such as those ruling Iran, Syria and Libya; (2) co-opting revolutionary movements in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen; (3) crushing pro-democracy movements against “friendly” regimes ruling countries such as Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia “before they get out of hand,” as they did in Egypt and Tunisia; and (4) using the age-old divide and rule trick by playing the sectarian trump card of Sunnis vs. Shias, or Iranians vs. Arabs.’

How Religion’s Demand for Obedience Keeps Us in the Dark Ages

‘For the vast majority of human history, the only form of government was the few ruling over the many. As human societies became settled and stratified, tribal chiefs and conquering warlords rose to become kings, pharaohs and emperors, all ruling with absolute power and passing on their thrones to their children. To justify this obvious inequality and explain why they should reign over everyone else, most of these ancient rulers claimed that the gods had chosen them, and priesthoods and holy books obligingly came on the scene to promote and defend the theory of divine right.’

Empire and Its Discontents: American Decline in Perspective by Noam Chomsky

‘In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere. In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery. They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls. A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada. If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”’

Military Power v. Protesters: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt http://mys.tc/1sd arabspring politics islam

Military Power v. Protesters: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt

‘Thus, distrustful Egyptians have not fallen prey to far-fetched, concocted conspiracy theories when assuming the attacks, whether consciously planned or whether consciously permitted, were acts of revenge by authorities. This extreme example of police misconduct only compounds broader concerns of brutality and injustice.

In the last year, for example, more demonstrators have been killed than during the 18 days of struggle that overthrew Mubarak. The abuses do not end there. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has imprisoned 12,000 regime opponents for trial in impromptu military courts, more than during the entire 29-year rule of Mubarak.’

Egypt’s Ongoing Uprising: Live From the Streets of Cairo

‘Some women are now running for the highest levels of government. But like their male counterparts that abandoned the streets for the political process, they are about to realize the bitter truth about “democracy.” As the elections wrap up, it is clear that the winners of Egypt’s so-called “democratization” will be the once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. This isn’t due to the fact that many revolutionaries decided to boycott the elections. The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and Justice” party had the financial capacity to pay for the big campaign that bought them the votes of many Egyptians. In Egypt as in other capitalist democracies, the axiom one dollar = one vote rings truer than ever. Although economic conditions were a major spark for the uprising a year ago, the MB have the exact same economic policies as their predecessors. So many Egyptians who simply voted for the party with the deepest and longest-running conflict with their previous rulers will have to take it to the streets to topple their government yet again in the near future.’