The Rebellious Arab States And The Emotional Plague

Once again, the drama of the conflict between people’s longing to be free and their fear of freedom is being played out, this time in the form of popular uprisings against military dictatorships in Arab Nations throughout North Africa and the Middle East. It is an old story as old as the history of civilization itself. Once again, many in the Free World are euphorically rooting for the oppressed people to be freed from their oppressors. Once again, no one is able to ask the obvious questions: Why are people oppressed in the first place? How is it possible that a handful of despotic leaders can enslave millions of people? How can such an outcome be prevented in the future? Why are people able to see and deal with only the surface of social problems and not their underlying causes?

The answer to these questions has to do with the existence of human armor. For example, because of their armored condition, when the subjugated masses are liberated they are not able to function differently than they did before. People want freedom but they are terrified of being free. New tyrants are always ready and waiting to take control of them, often with a worsening of social conditions. This is the operation of the emotional plague – the destructive behavior of humans on each other.

Until people open their eyes and start honestly looking at themselves for the source of their problems, the hopeless cycle of social oppression followed by people’s rebellion against tyrants will continue with increasing severity and loss of human life. This task requires that people start taking the existence of the emotional plague and its devastating effects on human life seriously.