5/19/2018 Berlin 1989 the Miracle That Blinded Us to the Truth About Revolution

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Berlin 1989 the miracle that blinded us

to the truth about revolution

Saturday 08 Nov 2014

Mine was a generation of journalists and politicians who came of political age with the fall of

the Berlin Wall.

That tumultuous event 25 years ago this weekend shaped our worldview giving us too

much faith in the !uasi"religious creed of human rights and an unrealistically optimistic view of

revolution.

#ur childhoods and early adult years were overshadowed $y the %old War. We could not

imagine a world that was not finely $alanced $etween the &oviet 'nion and the West the only

potential tipping point the terrifying possi$ility of nuclear war.

We thought the sta$le insta$ility of the glo$al system would last forever so we campaigned for

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change within its limits.

(or me and many others human rights was our cause) we wrote letters to prisoners of

conscience in the gulags of the &oviet 'nion and demonstrated against '&"sponsored death

s!uads in *l &alvador.

+fter decades of stasis change came faster than anyone could have dreamed.

,ech Walesa and &olidarity spearheaded change in -oland.

The elvet /evolution in %0echoslovakia led $y the high priest of human rights aclav 1avel

seemed to happen overnight.

&uddenly the Wall was down perestroika was leading to glasnost Mikhail Gorbachevwas

$eing usurped $y Boris eltsin and the whole world had changed.

3 haven4t even tried to get it in the right order $ecause events tum$led over each other and a

producer on BB% World &ervice radio as 3 was at the time had to scram$le to keep up

interviewing a dissident one day who might $e president the net.

3t was di00ying eciting and largely $loodless. Then suddenly the revolutions were over

*astern *urope had joined western *urope communists were now consumers. The thrill of

revolution had su$sided into the day"to"day grind of democracy.

*thnic wars including the $loody conflicts in the former ugoslavia were a conse!uence of

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the end of the %old War $ut the countries that had undergone revolutions did not eperience a

violent fallout.

*ast 6ermany peacefully rejoined the west. %0echoslovakia divided into the %0ech /epu$lic

and &lovakia without a shot $eing fired.

(ast forward to 2788 when the same journalists and politicians now middle"aged were

confronted $y another series of revolutions this time in the rab !orld.

#ne $y one the dictatorships fell) Tunisia *gypt emen ,i$ya. #ur paradigm was set in 89:9;

we wanted Tahrir &!uare to $e our second Berlin Wall. Through the prism of our previous

eperience we saw rain$ows.

3t was hard not to get caught up in the moment all those young people throwing off their

shackles demonstrating for the right to $e like us. 3t looked and felt like 89:9.

But our eperience distorted our understanding of the Middle *ast and of revolution itself.

/ather than remem$ering the images of 6ermans tearing down the Wall we should have $een

reading %rane Brinton4s classic 897 *nglish /evolution and then the +merican (rench and /ussian

revolutions he o$served four stages from the old order through the moderate regime to radical

etremism and eventually much later uneven !uieter times.

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+fter the Berlin Wall came down eastern *urope went straight to stage four $ut the Middle

*ast is mired in the third) radical etremism. #ne of Brinton4s phrases Terror and irtue

" seems tailor"made for the kind of 3slamist etremism we4re seeing $attling for supremacy in

,i$ya today.

+nother %entrali0ation of -ower in a /evolutionary %ouncil ?ominated $y a &trong Man

could have $een written a$out"#y$t.

Those of us who were around 25 years ago marvelling at the fall of the Berlin Wall may think

we have long memories. But we don4t.

#ur understanding was skewed $y what we now can see was not a precedent for political

change $ut a historical miracle.

Posted by Thavam

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