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The Nature of
Political Revolution: Comparing the French Revolution to the Arab
Spring
There are many similarities between the causes of Arab Spring
and the French Revolution. In both revolutions tiny minority of people
ruled with an iron fist against a huge portion of commoners. In both
cases the commoners, although they made up a huge percentage of the
population, took decades and sometimes hundreds of years to realize
that there was another way to live. There are many social political
and economic reasons for revolution. Some of the biggest reasons for
the start of the French Revolution and the Arab spring are the
availability of information on how other people live and the
dissatisfaction of youth.
Political reasons for revolution in the Arab spring include
corruption and absolute monarchies that ruled with complete authority
and sometimes unimaginable brutality. Belabbe Benkredda. (2013)."Reclaiming
Arab Public Sphere." The
Nation. This article explains
the politics in most Arab countries are fused with religion. Many Arab
monarchs live a very different lifestyle than the people they rule
over. Arab religious rulers and monarchs make up a tiny percentage of
the population yet they control everything in their countries. The
political process is so corrupt most don't even bother running for
election but when they do people's votes do not really count the end
result was decided before it even started. The difference between
politics today in Arab nations and the French Revolution is the access
of information available today. With the Internet and television it is
difficult to avoid of tons of easily accessible information. Live
broadcasts can be seen by millions of people instantly during the Arab
spring. During the French Revolution people had speeches, pamphlets,
newspapers and books at their disposal but it was not as instant as
the information provided today with technology. In France Louis XVI
wielded absolute power in the clergy and nobility barely gave peasants
enough to survive. In Arab nations there is also this incredible
disparity of power between the governments in charge and the people
that they ruled over. The people in Arab nations have almost no say in
how their daily lives are run. The political reasons for revolution in
the Arab spring and in the French Revolution are very similar, a huge
amount of people being ruled by a tiny minority of rulers who treat
them poorly.
Economic reasons for the Arab spring and the French Revolution
have some similarities as well. During the French Revolution inflation
was so rampant that people literally could not afford to eat bread.
Yet the Kings and nobles lived in incredible opulence that peasants
couldn't even understand. When information became available to the
peasants via pamphlets or speeches that the Kings lived this type of
lifestyle while they lived in squalor the merchants and the younger
generation decided there had to be a better way. Belabbe Benkredda.
(2013)."Reclaiming Arab Public
Sphere." The
Nation. This article explains that there is a similar
situation in Arab countries today. As people become better educated in
the Arab world there is a growing number of use with college degrees
that find that they have zero opportunities to better themselves no
matter how hard they work. In some countries there is a 60 percent
unemployment rate for educated young men. And there is almost 0
opportunities for women in the Arab world. During the French
Revolution as peasants moved into cities and became merchants they
found as hard as they worked they could never better themselves
because taxation and inflation so they could never get ahead. Once the
peasants of France and the educated youth of their world found out the
opulent lifestyle of the leaders of their countries they rose up
because of the incredible inequality of it all. The exact same thing
is happening now in the Arab world. People are beginning to rise up
and realize that there is a very different world out there, and they
want some say in their own lives.
The social reasons for the Arab spring and the French
Revolution are also similar, information being the key. Information
during French times included speaking in public squares, pamphlets,
newspapers, books sometimes with great passion from famous
philosophers sometimes by common people who had simply had enough and
saw better way to live elsewhere. Elie Chalala. (2013). "The Arab Spring-The Original Arab Revolution? | Al Jadid Magazine.
She explains in this article that in the Arab spring social media has
changed everything. Leaders find it impossible to fire against unarmed
protesters in Egypt because the entire world is watching the live CNN
broadcasts. When the Egyptian authorities do fire upon the unarmed
protesters the world watches and condemns them instantly. The Internet
has changed how we receive information today. Nothing can be stay
secret very long. The youth, who number 60 percent unemployed, have
nothing better to do than protest and demonstrate it's not as if they
have a job to go to. Once the word gets out that one country is having
luck with these nonviolent demonstrations and they can see on the
television screen, on their computers, on their smart phones that no
one is being arrested, no one is being harmed in the streets then
suddenly the government has almost zero control over the crowds. Ient
has almost zero control over the crowds. It spreads to other countries
where more overeducated underutilized angry youth take to the streets
asking for changes. During the French Revolution once the word got out
that Kings live like, well Kings, people who could not afford a loaf
of bread to feed their child who is literally been starving for weeks
realized that they numbered 98 percent maybe for the first time. It's
easy to be starving and sad if you assume the whole rest of the world
is starving as well. When you realize the incredible extravagance that
the Kings and Nobels lived in through information and pamphlets and
word-of-mouth it gets you angry. Angry, hungry, hopeless people are
frightening because they literally have nothing to lose. The common
everyday people in both the Arab spring and the French Revolution
found that they have very little to lose and everything to gain
through a revolution.
The nature of political revolution is incredibly complex both
long ago in the French Revolution and in Arab nations today. Political
revolutions are fast. You are asking for centuries of tradition to be
changed instantly and that's asking a lot. History is generally slow
to change because people get comfortable and they get used to their
condition, whatever it may be. Radical revolutions ask and sometimes
demand instant change and so far it has not happened without
significant bloodshed. There is a complex mix of social economic and
political issues that start a revolution. If there was only one issue
like social injustice or prices being too high perhaps the leaders
could have stayed in power but when you mix crushing political
regimes, and economy that is not solvent and going broke quickly, and
the social information available it is a volatile mix with no easy
answers. Sometimes people are simply hopeless and they see a change of
political structure as a solution to these problems. We have a
democracy in the United States and many people will argue that the gap
between poverty and the wealthy is so great that even with a democracy
things are still bad. Treating people fairly and with equality may
only come in some countries through a bloody revolution. The monarchs
of both France and in the Arab nations live in opulence while
thousands strive to survive another day with disparities like these
revolutions are inevitable.
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