Egypt and the Snake-Oilers
The secular West has a secular gospel. It is the good news of democracy. When problems assail a nation, all would be assuaged if not solved if it had more democracy. And so it has come to pass with respect to Egypt.
The West is not unique in that it has its own version of gospel. All human cultures, religions, and peoples have a gospel of some kind. The word "gospel" of course means good news. The gospel of any society is the proclamation of what that society believes will make things right. Whatever a culture looks to as the "super problem solver" is its saviour. Proclaiming and touting that "saviour" is its gospel. That gospel reaches the status of being established in a society when its promises and claims are seen as self-evident and beyond question. Whenever a culture fails to achieve a consensus view of what its saviour is, it has no gospel: fracturing is inevitable. In the West, under the aegis of its established religion of secular humanism, democracy is it.
It is easy to understand why democracy has become the West's established gospel of choice. The West is primarily about the glorification and celebration of man. Democracy is that form of government which does respectful obeisance to man--it is the system of government which seems to accord most closely with the idea that man is his own self-saviour. If man is his own self-saviour, then democracy is the form of government which brings man into a position of institutional supremacy in society. The will of the people is the voice of our god. So, if any society has problems (and all do), a system of government which institionalises and reifies the will and wisdom of man must be better, if not best. Democracy facilitates man taking control of his own destiny and this will result in the solving and resolution of all problems.
As the West opines and pontificates over Egypt it cannot help but project its gospel upon that country. The future for Egypt would be much more assured and all problems would be mitigated if the government were to become less authoritarian. If free and fair elections were held and the people had a voice all would be well, or at least better. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who come proclaiming the gospel of democracy. What a tingle goes up the spine when our high priests in the West proclaim our secular liturgical chants.
Problem number one. Egypt already has a democratic government. The political party of President Mubarak is called the National Democratic Party. "Don't be an idiot," we hear you retort. "The name is nothing. The substance is everything." If we inquire what the "substance" might be, no doubt our Western gospellers would point to "the people" electing and controlling their government, so that the government reflects them: their hopes, aspirations, beliefs, and desires. If Egypt were to have that kind of government--that is, a democratic government--all its problems would be solved or at least mitigated. Democracy is the good news of salvation.
The Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has conducted a survey in Egypt and six other Muslim countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Nigeria) on public attitudes to the Western gospel of democracy. A majority (59 percent) in Egypt think that democracy is the best form of government for Egypt. Clearly, the Western missionaries have been influential in that country. It bodes well for a peaceful transition to modern, western secular democratic government.
But even more people (85 percent) believe that Islam has a positive influence on politics. This implies that a large section of the population in Egypt (around 35 percent) can take or leave the West's gospel. The real deal gospel in Egypt is Islam. No surprises there. All will be solved by submission to Allah. But it gets more problematic. Two out of three Egyptians believe that the Islamic fundamentalists are right; moderates are wrong. Twenty percent of Egyptians favour or approve of suicide bombing and other terrorist acts. And there is overwhelming support (84 percent) for anyone who abandons Islam to be put to death. (This view is held, we are told, by "men and women, old and young, educated and uneducated, without distinction.")
It would appear, then, that the will of the people in Egypt portrays a profoundly different view of humanity from that trumpeted and believed upon by the gospellers of the West.
Democracy as gospel is a complete fraud. It is embarrassing that it ever came to be a prevailing Western gospel. How confused and stupid and self-righteously arrogant the West has become. But, then, every culture, every nation has to have a gospel. And the West has a right doozy.
No doubt some would resort to Winston Churchill's apologia for democracy: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried." Maybe. Tell that to the Athenians who suffered under the tyranny of the 51 percent. Tell that to the executed Egyptians if they end up getting a truly representative democracy.
Others would point to the need for "higher laws" superintending democracy, so that the rights and freedoms of minorities are protected. But at this point, democracy as gospel starts to shape up as a pretty thin reed. It turns out that there is democracy and qualified democracy. Which is pretty much what Egypt would end up with, right? It all depends where the qualifiers go in. What the West hopes for is a certain kind of democracy that presupposes its own ideology of western secular humanism. But to stand up and say that to Egypt would be embarrassing. It would be like taking one's real religion out of the closet.
Still others would retort--at least with democracy people get the government they deserve. Even if it turns out badly, it is their bad, and there is an implicit justice in that. Maybe. But just to say this is evidence that the great gospel of the West is a fraud. Once again the West has backed a loser and its posturing on the "global stage" is that of the unctuous snake-oiler. Democracy cannot bear the weight of being touted and believed upon as the great problem solver of mankind. Why? Mankind might have pretensions to deity but whilst his neck might be suitably stiff, his shoulders are neither sufficiently broad, nor his legs sufficiently strong to bear the load. Only the blind and the foolish pretend otherwise. Western secular democracy is an idol doomed to destruction.
Hat Tip: Maria at NZ Convervative
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