MUSTAPHA AJBAILI
In today’s fast-moving news cycles we accept—not expect—that things will change at any moment and will do so in a dramatic fashion. And we accept that change is looming, often not by design but due to the intrinsic volatility of our social, economic and political system/systems.
The unrest that has swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) shows that the traditional forces of domination, often entrenched through opaque internal politics, are in fact vulnerable to measly social earthquakes.
The unrest shows also that we now live in a world where no one is in charge. Revolutions, wars, economic crises are no longer but predictable, they are also part of our reality. The very recent developments in the telecommunication industry, primarily the Internet, have turned social and economic phenomena into epidemics. They have become like measles, little of which can spread like wildfire. They are contagious and their change can be dramatic, not gradual.
It took 13 years of sanctions, total embargo, and devastating wars to topple Saddam Hussein. It took two months for the popular anger to oust two dictators in the Middle East and drive three others to the verge of collapse, the point of no return, the tipping point of dramatic change.
Today, any popular demonstration—no matter how small it is—and any individual wrath is contagious and can consume our social jungle and shatter its laws. The lessons are for whom this may concern.
(Published in English.alarabiya.net June 29, 2011)
