In a Jail cell, Jodie Foster who plays an FBI Investigator tries to interrogate a psychopath, played by Anthony Hopkins in a scene from the 1991 award winning movie The Silence of the Lambs. As the back-and-forth dialogue intensifies, the prison inmate leads the FBI agent down a path into the most basic of human natures. Read On:
Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius - of each particular thing ask: What is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?
Clarice Starling: He kills women...
Hannibal Lecter: NO. THAT IS INCIDENTAL!! What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir... Hannibal Lecter: NO! HE COVETS !! That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice Starling: No. We just...
Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?
In some form or fashion, we all covet. We yearn for things we see most of the time, we lust for the finer spoils of life, to be seen sleepless in the corner office, and to be heard rambling on television. We wouldn't mind surmounting countless boulders with a timeless zeal oblivious to the parched earth on which our tender feet are being forced to tread on. In the end, while basking aloft on the summit we realize that much of the joy is actually behind us.
Despite this, there are those who desire that which may just prove to be a shade better than what they already possess. They throng their nations capital city squares, maraud government property and have given the age-old crime called arson a new human face. Much of this and even more is all fodder for an over-hungry press ever too willing to cover just about anything.
CNN's Anderson Cooper may have taken a few blows on his face a fortnight ago on the streets of Cairo when the uprising in Egypt reached its zenith, but the real fight may be around the corner, maybe 6 months or a even year away. The main opposition party in Egypt - the Muslim Brotherhood is lying low right now biding its time, waiting for the opportune moment to reveal itself.
Meanwhile as the rest of the Middle East progresses from simmer to boil, Egypt flounders on uncertain of what the future may hold. For the moment though, the military is in charge, though history shows that in most cases, the men in forest green rarely give up the throne without a scuffle of some sort.
What about Libya? There is no doubt whatsoever that these dictators have indeed led their nations down the path of fiscal ruin. The numbers will surely tell you the story; almost 25% of Egypt's youth were unemployed when the riots began.
However, the fundamental question actually is:
"Is democracy the real answer to the regions ills"?
Democracy works to perfection, albeit with a few odd chinks in its armor. Some of its most important facets are the systems that protect the rights of the silent majority and even at times, halt the cries of the bloodthirsty steamrolling majority. Most Arab countries have structures that have flourished over time with a nexus between the oligarchy and the Global Financial Systems with little or scant regard to social issues such as these. The majority were permitted to languish while the rich became richer.
Now, the Arab Nations have chosen the path of the uprising for all the right reasons.
If one were to look a little harder, one can clearly distinguish the fact from the current frenzy. The truth is that they covet Democracy but do not covet its freedoms!! Most of the Arab world detests the freedoms that Western democracies offer to minorities. There are laws in the west that permit abortion, then there are laws against gender discrimination, sexual discrimination and many other forms of discrimination that folks in the Arab world wouldn't even pay heed to.
They covet what they see in the west, for lifestyles that appear fanciful, for streets that are paved with gold or just for its sheer sheen. Their path to democracy would regardless of the road they choose, be a tortuous one. They would pick and choose the bad apples to discard from the policy basket. Minorities would meanwhile live in temporary fear while the majority by and large may just choose to wield their pitchforks every now and then, so as to ensure that despite the freedom to choose, they still have the major say.
The engines of Change have begun to crank, more regimes may fall, but more blood will certainly be spilled.
First Posted on Technorati
Clarice Starling: He kills women...
Hannibal Lecter: NO. THAT IS INCIDENTAL!! What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?
Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir... Hannibal Lecter: NO! HE COVETS !! That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.
Clarice Starling: No. We just...
Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?
In some form or fashion, we all covet. We yearn for things we see most of the time, we lust for the finer spoils of life, to be seen sleepless in the corner office, and to be heard rambling on television. We wouldn't mind surmounting countless boulders with a timeless zeal oblivious to the parched earth on which our tender feet are being forced to tread on. In the end, while basking aloft on the summit we realize that much of the joy is actually behind us.
Despite this, there are those who desire that which may just prove to be a shade better than what they already possess. They throng their nations capital city squares, maraud government property and have given the age-old crime called arson a new human face. Much of this and even more is all fodder for an over-hungry press ever too willing to cover just about anything.
CNN's Anderson Cooper may have taken a few blows on his face a fortnight ago on the streets of Cairo when the uprising in Egypt reached its zenith, but the real fight may be around the corner, maybe 6 months or a even year away. The main opposition party in Egypt - the Muslim Brotherhood is lying low right now biding its time, waiting for the opportune moment to reveal itself.
Meanwhile as the rest of the Middle East progresses from simmer to boil, Egypt flounders on uncertain of what the future may hold. For the moment though, the military is in charge, though history shows that in most cases, the men in forest green rarely give up the throne without a scuffle of some sort.
What about Libya? There is no doubt whatsoever that these dictators have indeed led their nations down the path of fiscal ruin. The numbers will surely tell you the story; almost 25% of Egypt's youth were unemployed when the riots began.
However, the fundamental question actually is:
"Is democracy the real answer to the regions ills"?
Democracy works to perfection, albeit with a few odd chinks in its armor. Some of its most important facets are the systems that protect the rights of the silent majority and even at times, halt the cries of the bloodthirsty steamrolling majority. Most Arab countries have structures that have flourished over time with a nexus between the oligarchy and the Global Financial Systems with little or scant regard to social issues such as these. The majority were permitted to languish while the rich became richer.
Now, the Arab Nations have chosen the path of the uprising for all the right reasons.
If one were to look a little harder, one can clearly distinguish the fact from the current frenzy. The truth is that they covet Democracy but do not covet its freedoms!! Most of the Arab world detests the freedoms that Western democracies offer to minorities. There are laws in the west that permit abortion, then there are laws against gender discrimination, sexual discrimination and many other forms of discrimination that folks in the Arab world wouldn't even pay heed to.
They covet what they see in the west, for lifestyles that appear fanciful, for streets that are paved with gold or just for its sheer sheen. Their path to democracy would regardless of the road they choose, be a tortuous one. They would pick and choose the bad apples to discard from the policy basket. Minorities would meanwhile live in temporary fear while the majority by and large may just choose to wield their pitchforks every now and then, so as to ensure that despite the freedom to choose, they still have the major say.
The engines of Change have begun to crank, more regimes may fall, but more blood will certainly be spilled.
First Posted on Technorati
1 comment:
The best revolutions have been those where the motive was to Let Go, not to Covet.
http://www.ted.com/talks/wael_ghonim_inside_the_egyptian_revolution.html
Do not dismiss the Egyptian peoples' uprising so quickly. Something has happened that has never happened before. It would be wise not to make the mistake of applying the same yardsticks that were used earlier. The game and the rules have changed - old predictions no longer apply.
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