Geeky Moms asked guest contributor Jeremiah Dyess to comment on the current situation in Egypt.  Egypt has been under intense revolting for over two weeks.  The Egyptian government shut down the Internet to help control the revolution.  It is remarkable that the Internet has become such a powerful force in how world governments are led.  The people get the government which they deserve or demand. 

Since January 25th, I have been following the events in Egypt very closely. It has proved to be a nexus of influence for the peoples of the west. However, it is not a democracy. Egypt is very important to the balance of power and the ability of the western peoples to keep energy trade open. The west would like to continue to use the fossil fuels of the Middle East before the people of the Middle East decide they would like to use them instead therefore decreasing the vital energy supply.  The major western powers have found themselves backing a small elite group of autocratic leadership in the different countries around the Middle East because it is easier to keep a few powerful people happy and subservient than a body of elected officials representing the interests of the Arabian peoples.  This method has worked pretty well in the past because for a longtime the Middle East has been dominated by single men. The great pharaohs such as Thutmoses III to the great Persian kings like Darius I. But now there has been an awakening of the people of Egypt.  They have demonstrated that they would like to see their president step down and parliament dissolved, and then starting over with a new government, elected in a fair and just manner. The government that is in power now has refused to submit to this demand. The governments of the West really don’t want to change things because it threatens the security of their energy supply.

Now there is a continuing deadlock between the Egyptian government and the Egyptian protesters effectively causing an industrial and civil strike that is disabling the Egyptian economy. Meanwhile, the western world has failed to fully back the Egyptian people and help them establish true democracy. Many do not realize that this same circumstance has occurred in Egypt before.

After the rule of Ramses the II, the Egyptian society had become so complex that bureaucracy began to eat up most of the nation’s profits leaving little for the average Egyptian. The tomb builders of Egypt started the very first industrial strike known to man because they lacked the everyday goods that they considered to be minimal standard of living. The nation of Egypt today again finds itself in this exact predicament. The leadership of Egypt didn’t listen back then either, and the people, undergoing great hardship and in desperate times, did the unthinkable and raided the tombs of the same men they had previously helped in their desire to become immortal. Most of what is left of those great pharaoh’s legacies still preside in Egypt, and if the men in power do not soon submit to the will of the people, I believe the great pharaohs of ancient Egypt will again pay a heavy toll.

But, it is the men and women active in the current revolution that have been paying the ultimate price. It seems to me that there is only one way forward:  the current government of Egypt must dissolve and the people must have their democracy. Many in the west fear that Egyptians will not be able to organize quickly enough to set up a democracy and the country will fall back into something worse than they have now. I believe we must cast these fears aside and place our faith in God and the human spirit to always strive towards justice and liberation.

To those who are not sure how to take the next step allow me to quench your fears on the recollection of Thomas Paine’s keen observation of a country in transition that we all may be more familiar with in his master work "Rights of Man" published in 1791.

For upwards of two years from the commencement of the American (revolutionary) War, and to a longer period in several of the American States, there were no established forms of government. The old governments had been abolished, and the country was too much occupied in defense to employ its attention in establishing new governments; yet during this interval order and harmony were preserved as inviolate as in any country in Europe. There is a natural aptness in man, and more so in society, because it embraces a greater variety of abilities and resource, to accommodate itself to whatever situation it is in. The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act: a general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

Westerners who misplace their reasoning in ignorance and fear mongering to suggest that the regime should be allowed to stay in power for any length of time should be ashamed of themselves. The right of the people to govern themselves must be placed ahead of the rights of men to cultivate and hoard money and power, even if it means consuming less of the world’s energy.