Thoughts on Libya and Egypt

I was talking to my pen pal in Africa on Facebook today, and after I asked him what his thoughts on the rebellions in Libya and Egypt were since I don't trust our news, he said that he believes our government uses the media to twist the true state of the world in order to hide its real agendas from the American people. I'm not into conspiracy theories, but what he said made a lot of sense. I don't feel like we get the whole story when it comes to world news. I'm ashamed to say that while I've heard a lot of bickering about what President Obama is supposed to do about these rebellions, I haven't heard a lick of information about why they're rebelling to begin with. I can only assume that Qaddafi is a tyrant, and the oppressed Libyans have had enough of his bullshit, so they're rebelling. If that is indeed the case, then God bless. Qaddafi has been a pain in America's ass for a long time.

But what should we do about it? On the one hand, I feel like because we have an abundance of wealth and resources, we are obliged to help the parts of the world who aren't so fortunate. I feel it's our humanitarian duty. On the other hand, it's not America's job to act as the police in Libya's domestic spat. For that matter, any country's domestic spat. We are not the world's police force, especially in times when we face our own domestic problems like our struggling economy and the polarization of our political parties to name a couple. We have no money to spend and our military is stretched thin. But these rebellions conjure thoughts of the American Revolution and how without France's intervention on our behalf, and granted they had their own shady reasons for helping us, we could never have beaten England. We needed the help of one of the world's then-superpowers. So in the interest of freedom, do we lend a hand?

Unfortunately, I think American's have become so apathetic to the world that we're inadvertently becoming the architects of our own demise. We're so submerged in our own wealth and excess that we can't be bothered with anyone else. We're greedy, gluttonous, and indifferent people, so strung out on deep fried cheese and shows like "The Bachelor" that we just don't care about anything, not even us. I can't imagine what our Founding Fathers would say if they saw this degraded generation of self-absorbed me-monkeys. In our relatively safe corner of the world, we have forgotten that everyday, people are dying in 9/11-esque attacks, that people are still under the thumb of tyrants, that people would kill for half a slice of bread. We should feel immense gratitude towards the universe that we got dropped here rather than anywhere else, yet I don't see any gratitude at all. We take our good fortune for granted.

In many ways, I see parallels between the Romans and us. Do you know when their Empire started to fall? There were many complicated reasons, but I think the most pertinent reasons were when they, like us now, became politically polarized and divided. Towards the end, they had two joint emperors ruling the east and west, four Caesars underneath them ruling four sub-sections, and an army that was spread impossibly thin. Furthermore, their people were, like us now, greedy, gluttonous, sex-crazed pigs. Did you realize that archaeologists are now finding that Pompeii, the famous town that got buried by Vesuvius, was the sex capitol of the Roman Empire? There were more brothels, prostitutes, lewd pictures and statues, etc. there than anywhere else in the Roman world. I'm not passing any sort of moral judgment on them, but my point in mentioning it is that when a society becomes so engrossed in pleasurable activities that they become apathetic to the world around them, their downfall is inevitable. It was fairly easy for the barbarians to overrun Rome and destroy the world's greatest Empire at that point.

We're becoming the Romans. The difference is that Rome lasted thousands of years before it fell. Why? Because communication was so much slower then. Now, communication is an instantaneous affair, so our demise is heading towards us much quicker. Still, when it comes to America, I am always optimistic. I don't think we're lost yet. I think we can look at the rebellions in Libya and Egypt and remember our own heritage. I think we can rise up against our government, peaceably, as is our right, to demand that we get the truth of the world situation from our corrupt government. But first, we must shake off these greedy, gluttonous chains that bind us and free ourselves from our apathy. We must ignore the polarizing forces in our culture and work together for a common purpose. Only then can we restore our people to our former greatness.