In case you haven’t heard, bad shit is going down in Egypt:
Egypt says 525 people were killed on Wednesday when security forces stormed Islamist protest camps in Cairo after a stand-off lasting weeks.
Most of the victims died in the capital but there was violence around the country on the bloodiest day since the pro-democracy uprising two years ago.
The final toll is believed far higher as scores of bodies are not registered.
Let’s take a minute to analyze the recent turmoil in Egypt. Two years ago a massive group of individuals marched on the state’s capital and decided to oust then leader Hosni Mubarak. People had finally tired of his de facto dictatorial status and wanted to change. Unfortunately for the Egyptian people that change came in the form of a new state. The first mistake made by the revolutionaries in Egypt was to hold elections. When you hold a elections you elect leaders and when you have granted people power of others only bad things will follow. After the election Mohamed Morsi was declared the victor and began his reign. Things played out as they usually do when statism is allowed to flourish. Morsi began to turn Egypt into his vision of an Islamic paradise. Being a psychopath who finally obtained unbridled power, his vision of paradise was unsurprisingly vicious. He worked to impose his interpretation of Islam on Egypt through the force of the state’s gun. People quickly tired of his antics and marched on the capital again, demanded Morse step down, and watched as the military removed Morsi from power.
Transitions inside of states tend to be messy because the loyalists and the revolutionaries disagree on how best to forcefully impose their will on everybody. Being worshipers of force those groups tend to use force against each other and civil war is often the result.
I think the lesson to be learned from Egypt is that replacing one state with another state isn’t a successful strategy for achieving liberty. It doesn’t matter if state officials take positions by force or are elected by an arbitrarily selected majority of voters. Once they have a position of power over others they can begin imposing their will. If Egypt, or any other nation, wants to be free they need to remove their state and replace it with spontaneous order. Liberty is only attainable when a society no longer recognizes coercive hierarchy as a legitimate thing.