The only statement which seems unfailing in this world: “This too shall change.”
There are changes in our world. What we have in all these mass uprisings is mostly rebellion. A revolution implies a radical change in government, but most of what we see right now is not a real change. That does not answer the question whether any given rebellion is justified, on what grounds, and to what degree. By God’s immutable Laws over this universe, opposing a tyrant is always justified. Some methods are justified, but not all. The only other question is motives and tactics.
Opposing Mubarak’s regime should have been immediate, but opposition at any time is justified. It’s quite possible the impetus was impure itself, given the nasty habits of the CIA and similar agencies. It is unlikely we will ever get the real story, though I am certain the momentum was a matter of middle class folks tired of Mubarak and friends scraping the lion’s share off Egypt’s economic activity, enforced brutally. There are a host of other sins, but this was the primary complaint we get from the participants. Much the same in the case of Tunisia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, etc. Given our current intellectual and political climate, the best one can hope for is not a government which doesn’t cheat the people and oppress them, but one which knows when to stop. Had Mubarak been more sensible and restrained, the cosmic morality would have been much more tolerant of him, and so would the people.
That doesn’t mean the “will of the people” — regardless whether it can be known — is equivalent to morality. Most Americans want things clearly immoral in one sense or another. Our culture arose not from the fantasies offered as “American History” in schools (which I once taught in those schools), but from a rather greedy and materialistic middle class merchant culture with a pretense to aristocracy. The sacred names of forefathers is shot through with snobby elitists, and too often the impassioned speeches about liberty and equality did not actually mean to include the lower classes, particularly those who were actually productive. Many of those forefathers were unconscionably greedy and arrogant, willing to crush those who were actually producers of goods under the unbearable burdens of taxation they often decried having to pay for themselves. Their beef with Parliament and King George was not taxation itself, but into whose coffers the taxes went. Most Americans today have no problem with taxing someone else for welfare programs to salve their conscience.
The rebellion in Wisconsin is a double wrong. First, you have a governor who gave tax cuts to his buddies, which buddies would be anyone contributing to the right campaign funds in sufficient amounts. He created a budget shortfall in the process. Second, the public employee unions are hardly any closer to God, willing to lie and cheat, so as to continue consuming what isn’t rightfully theirs, taken from those who actually produce. Those public employees easily receive in their pay envelope far above what the average tax-payer in Wisconsin ever sees. Need I mention again my low esteem for what passes as “public education”?
There is no right side on this question, because the people with the moral high ground — the taxpayers — are not represented in Wisconsin. The new regime claims by right of election to hold that mandate, but there hasn’t been a single honest election in the US since the rise of the two-party system. A choice between two evils is no choice at all.
God’s Laws approve only one function for civil government: Protecting the rights of those governed. Not promoting, but defending those rights from attacks. What that boils down to is keeping a minimal level of order, and defending from attack. Period. The laws of such government must align with the Laws of God, particularly in the Covenant of Noah. In case you can’t quite read between the lines, amassing wealth and power, while not prohibited directly, are uniformly an indicator of something deeply immoral. Those who are truly moral will hasten to distribute their wealth to those in need (voluntarily!), and will do their best to lift up the powerless by divesting themselves, granting power and freedom to others as much as possible.
In other words, the only path to justice is to act like an extended family. The only just ruler is the one who binds to you like a father or mother (as such parents ought to be, not as they too often are). The impersonal bureaucracy is a sin by definition. I doubt we’ll ever see such a genuine revolution in our time.
Thus, I give a grudging approval on moral grounds to the rebellion in some of the countries in the Middle East, particularly when the protesters remain non-violent. But I can offer none at all to the noisy union protests in Wisconsin. Nor do I support the governor of Wisconsin. Things will surely change. In all cases, I’m dubious the changes coming will be all that nice.
