As the Chinese proverb goes “May you live in interesting times.” And we are!!
After decades of stagnation, the forces of history are again stirring, erupting, sweeping through human society. One part of the world is falling, one part is rising, one part is bleeding to gain a better future. How can you not be awed and humbled by the actions happening all over the world? And all of it is the exact same things that have happened since mankind first started recording its existence.
Libya. Let’s take Libya. What echoes of the past are reverberating here? How about the combat? The recent attack by Gahdafi forces against eastern strongpoints of the opposition. Attack, fierce fighting, temporary occupation, and retreat. Why? During WW II the Italians, Germans, British and South Africans fought in the exact same deserts, with the same limited road system, with the same huge expanse of nothingness between supply points and enemy targets. Hit and run attacks, no way to maintain battles with extended, uncertain supply lines vulnerable to air strikes, every victory or loss depending on how well supplied you could keep your troops….. again, history repeating.
Gaddafi … yes, here again is Hitler in the Fuhrerbunker, surrounded by frightened sycophants who cheer on his illusion that he is winning the war, that he will prevail over the enemies overrunning his country, who denies that the enemy is close and getting stronger. Truly insane as Hitler was, and if he does not commit suicide or flee the country before rebel forces take over his palace, you can bet when he and his sons are captured they will be given a minute or two to pray for God’s forgiveness then be unceremoniously shot, and their bodies dragged through the streets of Tripoli. History repeating, but this time, the whole episode broadcast over the internet and Twitter.
A nation of people crying for self-determination, a chance to make a better life, security in their jobs, honest representation in their government, the opportunity for a good education, relief from corruption and special interests – how ironic that the common people of both Arab countries and the United States are fighting and suffering to achieve the same goals!
And next phase … the upheaval in Africa is the prelude to the industrialization of the continent, the only one not yet so involved. As the century wears on and wages and benefits of the workers in China, India and the rest of Asia rise (Chinese wages and benefits now have risen to almost half of what basic US standards are), the profit-hungry corporations of the world will abandon this region and flock to the low-wage, non-regulatory, capitalistic systems of this new North Africa freed of the violent and bribe-demanding despots of the old Cold War era. Meet the new boss….. History’s patterns repeat and repeat and repeat.
Amazing, yet hauntingly familiar times, to those who know the history of the world and its nations, its empires and wars, its noble experiments and frightening evils. Be aware! Be alive and pay attention!