We are seeing the Mediterranean Sea’s Southern and Western shores in a state of flux. It may be similar to the 1790s, when a wave of freedom washed over the United States and France. From Algeria to Egypt, and North to Turkey, changes are afoot.
The uprisings do not appear to be coming from the establishment, since it is the established governments that are under attack. Even Saudi Arabia seems shaken.
What has happened? In the simplifying analysis of Catholic Fundamentalism, all but the Christian religion are unable to provide governments that can respond to technical advancements. Automation, accelerating since the 1800s, has been setting people free from the drudgery of manual labor. Teamsters are still moving goods, but by truck instead of wagon, horse, and camel. There are few blacksmiths remaining. Whole sectors of employment have evaporated. Peoples in the hollow lands have been herded into worship services several times a day, but that isn’t making things better. Their nations are poorer than ever and continue their descent into poverty.
Some religions are only comfortable with governments controlled by those who believe that salvation is only obtainable by being faithful to “the way things were”. Those governments are collapsing. The force behind them seems strong, but it is a chimera. Their only forces are terror and fear, and they have nothing as terrible and fearful as the weapons behind the West.
