so i was in a cab today and the taxi man and i were chatting (as one usually does when they're alone in a cab) he asked all the usual questions: where are you from? are you here on vacation or do you live here?
so i told him i was from Saudi Arabia, and that i came here to study..
taxi man: what are you studying?
me: politics
taxi man: why?!!! there ARE no politics in Saudi Arabia
me: why would you say that?!!
taxi man: you have a King don't you?
me: yeah, so?
taxi man: what the king says everyone does. for example: if he asked everyone to wear red shoes every Sunday, that is what everyone would have to do!
i tried to explain to him that we do have a monarch, and yes, we are not a democracy, but that doesn't mean politics does not exist. he then went on and on about how HE knew the solution to all Middle Eastern problems.. and that was.. yes ladies and gentlemen, you guessed it,, the ideology that is the essence of peace, happiness, equality, freedom etc etc.. DEMOCRACY :)
Democracy: government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
in theory, this system is Utopian. an ideal dream created by the West working for the West. i say this because for some odd reason, when these Western post-modern missionaries come to spread the joys of democracy in third world countries, they use bombs and fighter planes to spread the peace. they force people into new political systems to promote their freedom to choose. they kill young and old in "friendly fires" to ensure happiness for the rest.. and they will do that to anyone who stands in their way to confirm equality.
i tried to explain to the cab driver that there was no such thing as absolute rule, as there is no such thing as absolute democracy. and that i study politics, in order to understand this horrific phenomenon that conducts the world and try to find a way around it!
i personally think it is very narrow-minded to assume that just because a King reigns over Saudi Arabia, he is in charge of everything within the borders of this massive country.
I mean think about it, if you are the head of a household, you cannot control the every aspect of the lives of the people living under your roof.. let alone an entire 1,960,582 sq km of land and 27,000,000 people!!!
but lets say, hypothetically.. what if an actual absolute dictatorship existed. and i, one of the citizens of this country decided i would like to know how the leader of the country ran his country.. would i not have the right to?!! just because somewhere, someone out there disagreed with my country's system of rule.. would that make me unworthy of the knowledge i would like to gain?!!
When it comes to politics, why is it easy for people to dismiss all views other than theirs even though the ideologies and assumptions are endless?!!
