Why we need Dictators

             Dictator’s get a bad rep. Before you close your browser in abject disgust please allow me to explain. Here in the Western World we seem to be in love with the following narrative, the narrative that follows a dejected and repressed group fighting against an evil Empire or Emperor. We need look no further than many Hollywood films to see this play out. This also plays out in our media, we lambast these cruel dictators in the Middle East and blindly cheer for those fighting his/her tyranny, because well, it’s what we do and freedom is a great thing (sarcastic voice here). However, when this same group turns on us months later we react in shock and disillusionment. 'Why did the Libyan’s attack the US embassy after we in the West supported them,' we ask.

           
            To better explain my point here let’s look at Syria. We constantly hear how Al-Assad is killing people, starving people and generally being a dick and how a small group is bravely fighting his tyranny. This exact same narrative played out in Egypt one year ago and nobody once stopped to think what the ramifications of Mubarak’s dismissal would mean. Who were the people fighting him? What do they believe in? And will they prove unreasonable without a dictator ruling over them? Instead all we could think about was FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY YEAHHHHH!

Of course, months later we find out that these people who inherited these countries are extreme radicals themselves who propagate hatred and intolerance among the many. Look no further than the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or the current climate in Libya for evidence. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran is barely holding back the more fanatical groups in his coalition. Instead of investigating the alternatives, the media and thus the majority here in the West label these men as evil and leave it at that, when they are literally struggling to keep their various coalitions from going to straight to hell. Trust me, the alternative is much, much worse.

           

            You see, the Middle East by and large is filled with a group of people who have the equivalent education of third graders. Reason does not prevail when the masses are uneducated, (here and abroad but that’s for another piece) and prone to superstitions and blindly follow religious beliefs over reason. When you have a group of people like that, radical groups can manipulate public sentiment in order to attain power which always turns around to bite everyone on the ass. Don’t take my word for it; an infamous Muslim Sandwich Baron explained this to me.

           

            This all goes back to my opening statement. Dictator’s get a bad rep. Though we revile them due to their somewhat dubious history, they provide a fantastic form of stability in an inherently unstable region. They themselves are educated enough to recognize that the people must be suppressed to repress fanaticism and do a fairly good job at keeping the disparate groups in their respective country from tearing each other apart. Sure they use underhanded tactics, but the alternative presented when they are deposed is even less palatable. Much like Plutarch attributes the wanton fanaticism of the masses for ending Theseus’ just reign over Athens, so can we attribute the problems posed by a freshly deposed dictator to the uneducated masses.

             

            This may sound ruthless, but look at it this way. In an educated, reasonable society it is possible to live and prosper without the need for a strong-handed dictator.  But in a society where religious extremism is a very real danger, reason cannot possibly exist. Imagine if people in Europe were still ruled by mid-8^th century Catholicism. In a land where superstition and outright revulsion for other religions and cultures reigns supreme, the need for a dictator is ever present.

           

            The bottom line is we need to stop pushing fantasy and settle for reality. The narrative of the noble Rebellion fighting the evil Empire is not one that is conducive to the current reality of the Geo-political world. Dictators are terrible, but the alternative is much worse. I believe in a world for the people but until the people are ready to be governed by reason and logic, men like Al-Assad, Mubarak, and Ahmadinejad are a necessary evil.

Post Article Comment:

I would like to add that the problem with all this is that many uprisings such as the ones in Egypt started out with the best of intentions by a group of educated, empowered youth. Instead of their ideas for hope and justice and a NEW system free from the corruption and lies of the past being disseminated for all, what instead happened was a bunch of old opportunists (many from the past old regime) usurped their ideal and claimed to support the people. The uneducated, fell for it hook line and sinker which led to the formation of an extremist group such as the Brotherhood which brought everything back to square one. Only now it is worse than when people like Mubarak were ruling the country. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Replacing the old with the new just perpetuates the cycle of greed and corruption but to a much greater degree.

A Ship Lost at Sea (Introduction to the Greek Crisis)

Forward: 

This opinion piece was written by me as an opinion piece for a newspaper a few months back. It however serves as a fantastic introduction for people looking to understand the nitty-gritty behind the Greek economic crisis and lends some background to the whole ordeal. It should help new readers begin to understand the complexities of Greece's political situation. It is easy to attribute this situation to 'lazy Greeks' and other stereotypes but it runs much deeper than that. 

In his Republic, Plato famously lamented the state of Athenian democracy by comparing it to a ship run by the sailors (politicians) who had ignorantly disposed of their Navigator due to the mistaken belief that they knew how to reach their final destination much better than he. The resulting chaos and upheaval between the various sailors effectively led to the ship (the City-State) being dead in the water.

How little things have changed in the proceeding 2000 years.

After national elections this past month that resulted in a fragmented political base, Greece finds itself with little recourse for progress in the chaotic sea in which it has found itself adrift. Consensus is impossible to find, unity is a pipe-dream and name-calling and political manoeuvring reign supreme among all parties left, right and center.

Lost in the shuffle has been the secret to Greece’s woes as well as the remedy for its troubles; national unity or lack-thereof. 

Much of Greece’s modern history has been marked by severe fragmentation between left and right. While foreign observers tended to sweep this under the rug and cheerfully branded Greece as a prime example of ‘western’ democracy, the truth is modern Greece has been and continues to be a hotbed of communist, socialist, democratic and even neo-nazi/fascist activity. It is common in Greece to see scuffles and sometimes physical arguments break out between these disparate groups in many casual settings throughout Greece. 

This great schism in Greek society is one of the key reasons why Greece finds itself cast adrift. This unfortunately has been building for the past 50 years and has resulted in the almost complete paralysis of the Greek ruling class and by extension Modern Greek society. This crisis was not thrust upon the Greeks overnight; rather, it has been building since the collapse of the Military Junta in the seventies.

In the ensuing scramble to placate the various threads of Greek political society following the collapse of the Junta, a variety of political parties formed, which attempted to pander to certain aspects of the Greek ideological mosaic in order to consolidate power. This led to the clientelism, nepotism and corruption that permeate modern stereotypes of the Greek political establishment.

The truth that has been exposed now for all to see was that there was never political consensus in Greece; power and prestige was bought and paid for, outlandish promises made and broken and the ignorant sailors took turns helming the ship as it slowly sailed towards disaster and impotence.

This has culminated in the current situation in which Greece finds itself. The politicians have succeeded in dividing the populace as evidenced by the recent electoral results; consensus is nowhere to be found and each of the parties find themselves scrambling over one another to make a plethora of promises that they cannot keep. All the while the ship drifts hopelessly nowhere.

In lieu of Plato’s philosopher-king helming the ship, Greece desperately needs a firm sense of leadership and direction in the coming months. Be it as a part of the European Union or not, it needs to set a firm course towards a particular destination, stick to its navigational charts and press boldly onward. Its people and politicians must rally behind a unifying force and cease the pointless bickering and vitriolic rhetoric that has paralyzed the country in the past. If the current crop of politicians cannot do this, perhaps it is time for the people to throw them overboard and promote a new political elite, free from the poisoned past. The current electoral evidence shows that this very well may be the case. The people of Greece have realized, - perhaps too late, - that the political establishment has grown bloated and decrepit and the electoral and poll results show a growing dissatisfaction among the populace.

Regardless of the situation, meandering at this point will only lead to chaos in the very near future.  Someone or something needs to unify the populace and set it on the right course. The current situation is untenable and unless something is done to unify the people and ideologies of the country, Greece will inevitably sail towards ruin.

           The ship has been adrift for too long and has almost run out of supplies. The passengers are getting hungry and the sailors have grown weary of infighting. Now where’s our navigator?

A Look at the Montreal Protests

            Forward:

This article was written 3 months ago for a newspaper. Having been written as such, its format is much more formal than some of my other articles on Myriad Truths. Regardless, the content is worthwhile so please take a moment to read it.

For the past 100 days protests have gripped the city of Montreal and paralyzed small businesses throughout the city. Disenfranchised students have effectively thrown the legitimacy of the provincial government in question out the window and stymied all efforts to resolve the crisis.

In an effort to crush these ‘mutinous hordes,’ the provincial government has passed an emergency law requiring all planned protests to report their planned route to the police ahead of time or have the protest considered illegal. It also prevents protesting students from locking out or preventing their classmates from attending classes if they so desire.

This law; called draconian by certain observers, has turned public attention away from what was a relatively simple cause – tuition hikes – into a rallying point for disenfranchised workers, unions and people dissatisfied by Premier Jean Charest’s handling of the province.

The protests are distinctly European in flavor and speak to the long association with European values that many in Montreal and other francophone cities harbour. In a country where the majority of its citizens take unjust changes lying down, the Québécois have the courage to rally behind a cause.         

Instead of showing solidarity with the students in Montreal, students outside the province have reacted negatively to the original cause of protesting tuition hikes. Many polled in Universities outside Quebec see the Montreal students as entitled children, mocking the fact that they have the lowest tuition rates in the country and will continue to have them even if planned hikes go through. Many see the protests as unnecessary and consider the hike, ‘no big deal.’ Even more support the Charest government’s actions against the students.

The Canadian reaction to these protests shows the ugly side of the Canadian psyche. Instead of a show of solidarity behind an admirable cause, Canadians prefer to sit idly by. The current Canadian mentality seems to be one that says, ‘Well its worse everywhere else so we don’t have a right to complain.’

This type of thinking is dangerous and shows the divide between the European-mindedness of the Québécois and the American-style subservience of the rest of Canada. At its core, a good government is accountable to the needs of its people; by rising up in protest the youth of Montreal have shown that they will not stand idly by while privatised interests erode the rights and freedoms that have been won over the past 100 years.

Much like Europe has rose up in protest against austerity, Montreal, true to its European sympathies has risen up in response to what they see as an erosion of the rights and freedoms of students to a subsidized, low cost education. For the Québécois, there are some things that the government simply should not cut in search of balancing their budget. If only the rest of Canada did the same.

According to Statistics Canada, tuition hikes from 1998-2008 have doubled the rate of inflation in every province but Quebec. A premium is therefore being put on higher education in Canada and students by and large have shrugged their shoulders and done nothing to protest such gross imbalance, even as student debt surges upward.

To the credit of the Québécois, they are much more socially and politically aware than the rest of Canadians. Upon the announcement that tuition fees would increase steadily over the next 7 years they took to the streets, much like their European brethren have in recent times.

The rest of Canada needs to wake up. The economic conditions coupled with the current federal government is a breeding ground for cuts to services that Canadians have taken for granted these past 50 years.

Instead of letting jealousy and ridicule take over - as is the want of Canadians with regards to their French counterparts, - the youth of this country should be standing in solidarity and support of their French brethren instead of sticking them with the unjust label of entitlement.

While these tuition hikes proved the catalyst for the disenfranchised students in Montreal, this movement as a whole is a growing response to the worldwide trend toward austerity and social punishment for mistakes that the youth did not commit. Just as the youth of Spain, Greece and Portugal have risen up in response to what they feel is a broken system that does not accommodate them, so have the youth of Quebec been awoken to the possibility of protest for tangible change.

What started out as a simple protest against tuition hikes has ignited public opinion against the penny-pinching and alleged corruption of the Charest government. Just as their European counterparts have done, the people of Montreal have taken to the streets; with no end in sight to their protests.

At this point the ball is in the rest of Canada’s court. Instead of standing by and spewing vitriolic comments against these brave students, Canadians far and wide should be standing in solidarity with their actions. Toeing the line of big business and big government is a recipe for disaster and could very well lead to the erosion of many of the services that Canadians proudly boast of to this day. 

The time for stereotypical Canadian indifference is over. Now is the time for the youth and disenfranchised to stand shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts in Montreal. A victory for the students in Montreal is a victory for the rest of Canada and democracy. As in Greece, Spain and Portugal a victory for one is a victory for all. Put aside the hurtful comments and give the students credit for standing up for what they believe in. They deserve nothing less.

Afterword:

Looking back on this piece 3 months after I wrote it I am proud to say that the protests did have a positive effect. The Charest government was toppled, tuition hikes were cancelled a few days back and students have returned back to the classroom.

The reaction from the rest of Canada is lukewarm however. Many comments posted on various message boards have continued to call these students spoiled, lazy as well as a variety of other colourful names. This once again shows the pettiness of Canadians at large. I do believe some of the vitriol comes from the fact that there is still a strong French/English divide in this country but I also believe that part of it stems from plain old jealousy that the tuition there is so much lower than elsewhere through Canada. Many of the comments echoed the same sentiment. That is, “Even if tuition was raised like it was planned, they would have still had the cheapest tuition in Canada,” and “they are going to bankrupt their province.” Maybe if Charest wouldn’t have been so involved in seedy dealings, there would have been more money to go around.

This mentality shows the extent to which private interests have trumped education, everywhere you go in Europe, post-secondary education is an unalienable right that is provided free of charge to those who pass the difficult entrance exams. Yes, even in Germany a so-called paragon of fiscal responsibility.

Many of the arguments as to how it is unsustainable are flawed at best. Regardless, of the merits of a free education based on merit based entrance exams, we shouldn’t resort to sheer selfishness when discussing government subsidized tuition. The last point I would like to address, is the belief that this was gained through violence. Again, this is misinformation disseminated through the media. By using charged words such as ‘Riots’ instead of protests and focusing on the violence of a select few instead of the just concerns of the many, the media effectively controlled public opinion on the matter. I will touch on these points in future articles, but I want to once again salute the brave students who actually stood up for something they believed in unlike the rest of Canada, the Quebecois have a backbone.

Education is a beautiful thing regardless of the cost involved.

Introduction to the Economic Crisis through an Unfiltered Gaze.

This weekend’s (Sept 8^th) Globe and Mail had a cover feature entitled, ‘The Big Stall.’ This referred of course, to the state of the Global Economy. In their business section which was dedicated to the feature, various analysts and commentator’s espoused the myriad views and solutions – both left and right - that have been perpetrated by many other media outlets since this crisis began over 4 years ago. For a cover story and planned week-long feature, it lacks any creativity and repeats what many already know.

You see, even the average lay-person can roughly understand these various treatments by now as they have been repeated ad nauseam since this crisis began. Statements and buzz-words such as ‘deficit-spending,’ ‘trickle-down economics,’ ‘austerity’ and many more have infiltrated the popular lexicon.

Something odd has happened though. Even though these solutions have been tabled, discussed and even implemented by both sides of the political spectrum the crisis persists well into its 5^th year. The self-correcting nature of the ‘market’ has not occurred with or without government intervention, huge bail-outs and other ‘classic’ solutions.

Even though nothing has truly improved, commentators are still spouting the same old tired rhetoric and solutions over and over and over again. “Keynesian spending here,” “tax cuts for the wealthy there,” and so on and so forth. Economists and politicians fight tooth and nail over these solutions but they, like the media seem to be missing the overall point which I will touch on in a bit. But before I close this introductory article, I would like to discuss history for a moment.

As observers and scholars of history know, there are water-shed moments. That is, there are moments in history so profound and important, that people can look back and point to a moment in time that began a rise or started a terrible fall or ushered in a new epoch in history. The Second Peloponnesian War, the rise and assassination of Julius Caesar, the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, the collapse of the Soviet Union and many more. Each of these were land-mark events that ended one era and ushered in another, economically, socially and politically. What historians understand is that time is ever-changing. Everything is doomed to rise to prominence and fall before being replaced by something else.

The point here is that perhaps we have reached a water-shed in history that future generations will look back on as the beginning of the end of an old era. You see, for the past 500 years western society has been used to one form of capitalism or the other be it the proto-capitalist mercantilism to the corporate/mixed economy we have today. Aside from a brief flirtation with Marxism and all that it entails in the 20^th century, we have been utilizing capitalism or its derivatives since the age of exploration began.

In this sense, it is not surprising that we cannot see what perhaps may lie right in front of us. No Empire, people or civilization probably ever saw or understood the reason for their decline until it rose up and toppled them from their perch. The reason for this is that we as humans appear to have an instinctual desire to protect and justify our current predicament. We solemnly defend that which we are comfortable with and seek solutions that are familiar and work within the context of our bubble. Does this not sound familiar to the current explanations and remedy’s given to get us out of this economic crisis?

This brings us full circle back to the point that the media, policy-makers and economists seems to be missing out on with regards to this crisis and it is a terrifying one for those who do not understand the flow of history. The point is thus; perhaps we have reached the end-game of Capitalism as a system itself. Our society has progressed so fast and so far in the past 100 years that perhaps we have out-grown capitalism and its various models. This economic crisis then is a crisis of Capitalism itself and not one of capitalisms inherent, ‘boom and bust’ cycles.

I will let everyone ponder that thought until my next instalment. In the coming weeks/months I will work diligently to prepare various topics that will attempt to encapsulate the many facets of this crisis as well as a variety of others. On Myriad Truths, I will discuss Marxism, austerity, demographic and technological changes, the crisis in Europe and many more. The reason for this is that I am quite frankly sick and tired of the same old rhetoric being pushed by the media and so-called experts left, right and center. The world needs new solutions to its problems and instead we re-tread the mistakes of the past. I will also dedicate certain articles to my brethren in Greece and focus on the many issues present there.

Finally, Myriad Truths, as the description above reads, is a website that will attempt to offer a different perspective on current events and global trends. By eschewing traditional political/social/economic ideology I aim to look beyond the tired rhetoric and misdirection offered by the media at large. Sometimes what I write may offend you but I beg of my readers to consider alternatives that perhaps they have not thought of before. I look at this world and I constantly ask myself, “Is this the best we can do? Did 4000 years of modern history lead us to this?” If you are satisfied with the way the world is Myriad Truths may not be the place for you.

Welcome and enjoy the ride, however long it lasts.