Monday, April 15, 2013

The Arab Sping as Stable Chaos

In his article Stable Chaos Abdullah Al-Otaibi claim that the Arab Spring fails because the Arabs have different ideas about "freedom" than the Europeans: For example, the term ‘freedom’ in the Arab mindset brings connotations of the emancipation of slaves; it does not have the same dimensions as it does in the West. We do not have Rousseau to teach us that democracy means “being subject to the laws”, nor do we have Montesquieu to tell us that “where licentiousness begins, liberty ends.” On the contrary, we have those who believe that ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are infidelities, but nevertheless they advocate them in the political sense because they serve their interests.

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