The Endless Waltz - War, Peace, Revolution
I once heard that history has 3 primary drumbeats, the endless waltz of War, Peace, and Revolution. Watching the news these days, I'm also reminded of an old Jewish curse, "May you live in interesting times" - these are indeed interesting times, and it seems revolution is everywhere
Consider: For the first time since the 1980's and the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the American public is in the mood to deregulate, cut taxes, cut spending, and cut Gov't in general - what a reversal from just a few years ago! From Obama telling Joe the Plumber that he wants to spread the wealth around, to the Tea Party, it's been a revolution in politics. There's talk of scrapping our progressive tax code and moving to something resembling a flat tax; the Republicans are divided, but only about how much to cut - any old guard who tries to spend or vote for more stimulus/investment will be tarred and feathererd. The Democrats have just lost half their blue dogs, and are increasingly dominated by the left wing of their party, while the Republicans are being dominated by fiscal conservatives; even Obama is trying to recast himself as fiscally prudent, in order to get re-elected.
Looking across the pond, David Cameron in the U.K. just gave a speech that totally rebutted multiculturalism, the belief that all cultures are equal and no culture should tell another what to do, even in the same country (of course this has led to isolated communities of immigrants, thereby thwarting assimilation, and aiding home-grown terrorists - I encourage you to read the speech if you haven't, it's a very good argument IMO). Germany's Chencellor Merkel, the leader of Europe's engine, recently said the same.
In other parts of Europe, "Austerity" is the buzzword of the day - gov'ts are doing everything they can to cut their budgets, and there's talk of reforming the Eurozone to mandate that all participating countries not exceed a certain debt limit. From America to Europe, fiscal discipline is the dominant mood.
In the Middle East, we have Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt erupting in protests - Egypt's dictator/pharoah, Mubarak, just got tossed out (which reminds me of an old saying - in times of revolution, the only thing the poor change is the name of their masters). Jordan, Syria, and others are taking steps to get ahead of protests and institute reforms in the hope of cutting off any protesters. Iran, that bastion of theocratic dictatorship, has seen it's people rise up and has brutally cleansed it's own elite ranks of dissenters; there's resentment and anger in the streets, and the only thing keeping it in check is the Revolutionary Guards' guns.
It's hard to make sense of everything going on, but it's amazing that all these things, these revolutions, are all occurring at roughly the same time, all over the world. From the West to the East, the times are a changing'.
