Click here to access article by Hisham Allam from Inter Press Service.
There is a widespread debate among various political observers both within and outside of Egypt over the significance of the Egyptian's army's removal of President Morsi. The debate all hinges on what people regard as "democratic" rule. On one side we find the issue of democracy as seen equaling elections while the other side argues that Morsi violated so many commitments to the people and tightened the reins of government to favor his own party that the army was justified in removing him because of widespread popular demand.
The word "democracy" has been so misused and obfuscated to serve mostly nefarious purposes. The people all over the world want it, and ruling classes are obliged to present fake forms of it to pacify the people.
This phenomenon has its source in the capitalist revolutions in Europe and the US in the 18th century when the new capitalist class was challenging the old aristocratic class for dominance over society. The former enlisted the aid of the people by promoting notions of rule by the people, the rule of law instead of "divine right" or inherited political privileges, and the "social contract" which offered legitimacy to representative government (represented by capitalists). Meanwhile, behind the new facade of representative government this new class has obsessively focused on individual "ownership" rights over any profitable sections of the economy (privatization of socially produced wealth).
However, people the world over are now seeing that this representative form of government with elections does not in any way promote the general welfare. Far from it. What they are witnessing is the increasing concentration of wealth and power in ever fewer hands amidst huge populations mired in poverty. Meanwhile, the Earth's ecosystem continues to destabilize. The ability of the world's ruling capitalist classes to continue using their fake forms of "democracy" is everywhere being challenged. Their meaning of the word (holding of managed elections) is undergoing serious examination.
Hopefully, the people of the world will arrive at new forms that truly empower people. Such forms, of course, threaten the rule of the One Percents. Thus, I think we can expect to see, as we are now seeing, class warfare continuing and even increasing throughout the world. It is a fight to the finish. Either the people will win and establish more legitimate forms of democracy, or we will see a global fascist order and a world of poverty, pollution, extreme weather-related disasters, diminishing species, and ever scarcer resources.
