Paul Ropp
Reflection
#2
As the week wore on I was getting a
bit bereft of the two stagnant conflict driven situations surrounding the
prophet Muhammad video, and the deteriorating situation in Iran and Syria. However,
as a few days wore on and I got more involved in this week’s topic, civil
society, as information descended from
the MENA region to popular media, then to facts. Now when facts started to
evolve out of the various Eye-witness reports I became more interested in the
subjects at hand; especially in light of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s
interview on Pierce Morgan, and the insurgence of violence in Sryia.
In the interview on Pierce Morgan Tonight Ahmadinejad
expressed his reason for saying that “Israel should be wiped off the map”. I
found this very interesting, perhaps President Ahmadinejad is using this as a
ploy to divert bad attention away from Iran and gain support for Iranian
proliferation of nuclear weapons, or perhaps he actually truly cares about the
Palestinian people and their right to self-governance. Whatever President Ahmadinejad’s believes he brought
up the topic of civil society as more than just an abstract concept of class into
my head. How can someone who’s regime blatantly violates the progress of civil
society in Iran show support for a Palestinian civil society; even if it is for
some hidden agenda? In class we have
been referencing the Arab Spring more and more as we have broken into civil society
and it seems odd that the proliferation of civil society is helpful not only to
good governments, but autocratic regimes; that some sort of organization
resulting in Palestine as a state would bolster the Iranian government but a
revolution on the other side would bolster Western backed democracies; so why
not two more Arab Springs? Yes, civil society in the best of circumstances, as
we discussed in class, needs time to properly evolve and become a
personification of well thought out ideals rather than the emergency valve of popular
frustration. Although, this foray into civil society by an autocratic ruler was
a bit misbegotten it spurred up a rekindling of interest for me! Does anyone
have any ideas thoughts about Ahmadinejad’s statements; did anyone watch the
interview and see anything interesting I didn't get to see all of it?
The resurgence of rebel violence in
Syria is also something I found pertained to what happens when the cohesion of society
fails to take down a regime peacefully. The Syrian conflict seems to have both
bolstered the strength of civil unity, but has also destroyed the lives of the
people who have made this revolution happen. So I guess I am a bit confused as
to what the cost of civil society in the MENA region is, to the people of the
region; must the price of freedom be so high. I would hope that revolutions
could be allowed to take place relatively peacefully; however, there is a proclivity
to violence which in itself is unstable and cause harm to any social cohesion.
In any case I think the discussion we had in class about moderate change, baby
steps to democracy, would be a more pragmatic road and benefit all countries
far more in the end. If anything last week’s lesson, and our papers on civil
society have gotten me really thinking about the subject, is it worth it, can
it work in the MENA region, will it always be in another states interest to
keep others under the thumb of authoritarianism; or even their own citizens? I would
love to go into more detail but sadly I am running out of time and I have some
other Homework to attend to, although I would like to say one last parting
word, that this week’s reading on civil society in Israel and Palestine has
been very enlightening to the subject and it pairs well with a book “From Beirut
to Jerusalem” by Thomas Friedman!
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