Revolution Change screams “Throw out the bums!”

But wait. It often brings in worse “bums”!

Advocating for revolution change, aka political change, while virtuous and noble indeed, is ultimately a wasted effort.

Now wait – Before you argue with me, go argue with history and THEN we’ll talk.

History is full of examples, but rather than get into some of the old stuff that your high school history teacher may have discussed while you were contemplating how you could ask that cute girl out who you sat behind everyday, take three examples from the recent past, and ask yourself – “Did these changes bring about a better environment for the people or was it a worse one?”

Three classic examples are revolution changes in Cuba (1959), Iran (1979) and Egypt (2011). Remember, there are thousands of other examples, but you were focused on the cute girl, remember? By the way, how did that turn out with the cute girl? It’s probably another example of change we can believe in not turning out the way you thought it would, right? Touche! My point is made. Change is not always good.

In these three examples, Cuba, Iran and Egypt, are the people better off now that “revolution change” has occurred?

They had a path to freedom. How did it turn out for them? And why?

Within the past year, there has been much talk about the “Arab Spring” and a lot of hope for a revolution change toward freedom in Egypt and the Middle East. Their revolution change has brought them right back to where they started, i.e. an autocratic dictatorship. In fact, there is growing evidence they may be worse off. There are bloggers who are now in jail because they wrote negatively about the military while Mubarak was the ruler. See Maikel Nabil Sanad for an example.

Note, this is NOT an article about those people or any one country. The people of Egypt deserve freedom. Doesn’t everyone? The point here is, it is an assumption to think that revolution change is going to be a good thing. History is full of examples where the revolution change was NOT a good thing. So this article is not about any one person or country. It is about people who rule other people, and it is a FACT that people with too much power often, no, damn near always, abuse that power. They can’t help it. They are, after all, human.

When you think about revolution change, this is how things usually work out in politics. How many people have campaigned on the ‘change’ platform, only to end up following the same path as the last guy? As the saying goes, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.’

Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in a few months’ time. It’s questionable whether Tantawi, the new military commander and ruler, will give up his supreme, unchecked power. Regardless of the outcome in this one situation, a new power elite will emerge in Egypt that helps itself to wealth and privilege at the expense of everyone else.

This is the great weakness in any political system – ‘government’ is based on the idea that some individual or organization is awarded power that no human being should possess, i.e. the power to kill, to declare war, to steal, to defraud, to counterfeit.

This is why advocating for political change may feel needed and feel like the right thing to do, it is often a wasted effort.  Power-hungry egomaniacs and their “Yes-Men” always rise to the top, conning the citizens that ‘change is coming’.  It’s all a big con designed to strengthen their positions while robbing from the masses. These people are cockroaches, living on the production of other people’s successes!

As I have grown to appreciate history, I have grown to appreciate that it’s not PEOPLE who we should believe in, but rather it’s the SYSTEM that matters more. And I cannot help but think of the U.S. Constitution. As flawed and as “out dated” as some people might THINK it is, I have come to appreciate that it is an objective set of rules, designed by people, yes, but it was designed by people who had the common good in mind WITHOUT a hidden agenda.

In other words, when they wrote it, they had no “dog in the fight”, as the saying goes. I have a deep appreciation for the beauty of this type of system. It rules with an even and fair hand.

I just hope that enough people in the world will understand that revolution change is not an automatic change for the better.  Maybe what we all need is a refresher course on the U.S. Constitution.  Given the socialistic slant of what is being taught in American schools, THAT would be a revolution change in itself.  Now THAT would be change I could believe in!

Kurt Gross

“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”  … Winston Churchill