There's A Revolution Going On... Somewhere

Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett

Pick a point in time, any point in human history, and I absolutely guarantee that, somewhere in the world, there is/was a revolution going on.  I'm talking about the type of revolution where the people decide they dislike their government, rise up, and try to change it.  Just like Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet sang that it's always five o'clock somewhere, you could likewise sing that there's always a revolution somewhere.

Revolution in Iran

Here as of late, the most newsworthy one is in the Middle Eastern country of Iran.  This nation has a violent and unstable history that goes back thousands of years.  Their last revolution was in 1979, which ousted the Supreme Leader known as the Shah and put hardline Muslims in control.  The current Supreme Leader is Ali Khamenei.  But the folks there have had enough of the corruption, the oppression, the morality police, the shortages of basic necessities, and the denial of basic human rights.  They are marching in the streets and on the rooftops, demanding an end to the brutal Islamic fascism they have been forced to live with all these decades. 

And so, for the people of Iran, I say: good for them!  It's definitely a positive trend when the people realize that all the promises made by Dear Leader were a sham, and they were fools for believing him.

The Who: revolution skeptics

But, there's a problem.  Check out the words penned by the rock band The Who, in their classic anthem:

I tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday
Then I get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

Yes, faithful readers, the problem for most of the people in the world is:  they just never learn.  It happens in history, and even in the Bible, over and over and over again: the people finally realize their government is crap, so they stage a revolution and install a brand new government, but only this time, the new government is… still crap.

Hooray for the people of Iran, but I can already make my usual spot-on prediction:  if they succeed in overthrowing their horrible Islamic government, then whatever they replace it with will most likely be just as horrible.  If not worse.

American Revolution

Now let me quickly add that history does have some notable exceptions, the most obvious being the American Revolution back in the 1700's.  The colonists got fed up with their British overlords, rose up, defeated what was, at the time, one of the world's toughest armies, and established a system that actually was better:  a society based on individual freedom and limited government. 

Unfortunately, it didn't keep.  It was a gradual thing, but bit by bit, our government began growing and growing and growing.  Even the speed of the growth grew; if you were to plot the size of the U.S. government on a graph, it would be an upward curving line, with no end in sight.  And that includes state and local governments, too. The American people have sold their soul to the devil and fallen for the world's oldest scam.

I have spent most of my adult life trying to understand this human affinity for government.  It can take many forms, from a single "chief" as leader of some tiny, remote village or island, to larger states with a monarch, or a parliament, theocracy, representative republic, pure democracy, and everything in between.  The pattern is universal and timeless.  People feel they are small, weak, mortal children, and want to put their trust in something bigger, stronger, and more eternal (real live, visible humans always seem preferable to invisible deities).  And so, the people fall for the same garbage again and again.  Some charismatic personality rises up and claims they are different from the last guy, that they are a "common man/woman" of the people who feels their pain, and has no desire for all that power and money that comes from political leadership.  A revolution follows.  Then over time, our "common man's" true colors come shining through, as he becomes a tyrant and accumulates more and more power.  By then it becomes much harder to stage another revolution and unseat him  (harder, but not impossible; witness the fall of the Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall).

…but people love government

People love government, pure and simple.  Given the chance, they tend to vote for more governmental size and power, ignoring the fact that their existing government - or the one before it - is or was big and powerful.  And it didn't work, or is not working, as promised. 

The only thing libertarians like me can do is keep fighting the good fight, hoping and praying that somebody out there will listen and wise up, and we don't get fooled again.  Then the next revolution really will result in something better.