Causes of Social Upheaval
by Anton Jarrod
Causes of Social Upheaval
The so-called “Arab Spring” has been the subject of various analyses since 2010, as part of an attempt to understand the causes and effects of social upheaval, which forms a part of humanity’s somewhat general endeavour to understand itself and the situations and realities around it. A recent article from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, posited that “stark deficiencies in social policies in the region have undoubtedly contributed significantly to motivating the Arab Spring”[1]. Highlighting issues with regard to deficient provision for education, social protection and health, perhaps many would agree that such things do indeed constitute causal factors and contribute to a general social unrest and disorder.
However, perhaps few would agree or even consider that more fundamental factors exist, rooted in what might be described as the deeper layers of the fabric of reality – factors that involve not only humanity but the whole living reality, on the universal scale – as causes emanating from and in accordance with universal, eternal principles. Contemporary humanity has by now largely given up accounting for reality and attributing to it causes that originate in a transcendent reality. Long ago dismissed as primitive and superstitious, the current consciousness cannot quite grasp the fundamental connectivity between all things and their origin in the Higher, which it grossly misunderstands (which, in certain ways, it always has misunderstood), and which understanding is seated in a higher consciousness, which must be developed.
And so it is that humankind will continue to ask questions, and be confounded by events it will not understand, to which it will ascribe causes that are only, in truth, superficial. The real causes of major and minor upheaval will be hidden from it: until, that is, it develops. When this occurs, it will largely be satisfied in its endeavour to understand itself and the situations around it, and will be able to answer the question “why?”
[1] “Deficient Social Policies Have Helped Spark the Arab Spring”. Randa Alami and Massoud Karshenas. Development Viewpoint. Number 70, February 2012. Centre for Development Policy and Research. SOAS
true.
From a purely deterministic standpoint (I may be deterministic to a fault, in fact – I can’t argue that), do you think it’s possible for human consciousness ever really to understand the causes of social upheaval or anything else? I think I have a hard time believing in any form of consciousness with the “hardware” – so to speak – to process causality thoroughly enough ever to really understand events. It seems evident to me that to believe human minds can ever pierce the mystery of causality, one must believe in something metaphysical. If for no other reason, there would have to be space for “information storage” during processing, although that’s a rather crude analogy for what I really mean. The human brain may not be sufficient to “store” it, much less analyze it.
To answer the question simply (although the whole subject is enormously complex), yes I do think it is possible for human consciousness to understand the true nature of reality and the fundamental causes of things. However, I also think that to really understand this, and even to believe something about it, an individual has to go through a certain process or period of development.
future historians will recount these events as a nascent civilizations reaction to an aspiration which the social and political set up couldn’t offer