Revolutionaries are crazy…
Writing by abuhatem on Friday, 23 of November , 2007 at 3:32 am
No matter what ideology you adhere to, what political views you have, or what you believe is the ideal system - revolutionaries are crazy.
The last great phenomena of revolutionaries, in our generation, was the Marxist Socialists and Communists. Their revolutionary theory of history meant that the quest for Utopia could be actualized through a global overthrow of governments. Che Guevara, Tortsky, Gamal ‘Abdel Nasser, and all the socialist revolutionaries would finally bring heaven-on-earth to a reality and give “the workers,” rights, and dignity, all would be merry, and everyone would just have a nice big smirk on their face.
This revolutionary ideology was taught to children in the Soviet Union from their youngest ages.
We have also had other revolutionary currents. Advocates of “world revolution,” have been many. All of them have one thing in common though - the quest for Utopia on earth after finding the “perfect,” ideology of government, economics, or society. The quest for Utopia, yes, that all-encompassing quest is what defines these revolutionary movements.
In 1979, after the Shah was deposed in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, called his Shiite brethren to the same concept of global revolution. Shiite Republics based on fundamentalist interpretations of scripture, would lead to peace on earth, and happiness in society. This revolutionary Shiism was argued to be the “perfect,” ideology - encompassing the Democratic elements of the rational, and the Shiite Islamic elements of the spiritual, resulting in pure bliss.
We have also had this in Sunni Islamic movements as well. The “Muslim Brotherhood,” led by Islamic extremist Sayyid Qutb, called for global revolution, of the Marxian sort, to install Sunni Islamic republics throughout the world. This would led to eventual world peace and the best type of society it was argued, by many thinkers then and now.
Neoconservatives, in their belief that Democracy is the ultimate system known to man, call for the violent spread of Democracy through means of force if necessary to all countries of the world. When every country is a Democracy they argue, this will lead to the greatest aggregate happiness - and also world peace for “Democracies don’t attack each other.”
The Quest for Utopia, get the picture?
However, Communists destroyed the private and personal civilian lives of the entire populace in the Soviet Union, forcing on them drastic poverty, a terrorist police state, and carrying out wars and massacres the world has never known.  The so-called “Islamic revolutionaries,” of the Muslim Brotherhood led to the formation of al-Qaeda, the 9/11 attacks, and the massacres and brutal terrorist attacks which have happened throughout the Middle East these days but especially Iraq. And, the neoconservatives have gone to war with a country which was not a threat to them, Iraq, and in their race to spread Democracy have led to the killing of over a million people and the destruction of the infrastructure of a nation.
Why are people so bad? The political philosopher Edmund Burke observed over 300 years ago, that the worst of people’s souls and of their selves come out during revolutions. He argued that revolutions cause the magnification of the evil side in human nature. In revolutions, things get ugly, people get crazy, and everything is believed to be justified in - well, a quest for Utopia.
Utopia is never coming. Although I believe in “better,” and “worse,” ideologies and systems, no matter what you believe, if you are a revolutionary, your an idiot and crazy. At least the vast vast majority of the time, in my view.
Category: Political philosophy
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