The recent events in Malaysia have shown that despite a reasonably good quality of life overall for the masses, there is still this craving for complete "equality" among the people. It is this inner desire that have been manipulated by the politicians to achieve selfish aims and agendas that have nothing to do with the welfare of the people that they claim to represent.
Look at the Irish troubles...how does blowing the country and fellow Irishmen to pieces "serve" the oppressed people's rights? It doesn't. It's only after there have been great political compromise and acceptance of each other's right to co-exist peacefully in the country has there been a resurgence of development and prosperity in the last few years. God knows the Irish deserve this peace as many has suffered for many many years through the action of a few.
Through history, there has never been "true equality". Even during the French revolution, which gave birth to modern democracy of "Liberty, Freedom and Equality", some were more free and privileged than others.
A few determined the fate of the many, of who they put on the guillotine. They didn't stop killing and beheading after going through the Bourgeois class. Filled with blood lust and hunger for more power, they started and continued to behead those they considered to be counter- revolutionaries or who were simply "in their way". The "saviours" became the oppressors.
The same process happened with communism in Russia.The founding ideals were indeed great, and the aim was to have a "classless"society. From each, their own ability. To each, their own need. What higher aspirations can a revolution have. But again, the "leader" of the people became their oppressor. And the ideals was lost along the way.
In India, people have lived in an institutionalised caste system for thousands of years. So deeply ingrained is this system of "accepted" discriminations that people thought of it as "this is my place in the universe". Did the Pariahs ever demonstrated or held rallies and demanded their "rights" in those thousands of years? I don't know. If you are born into a caste, you die belonging to the same caste. Your fate is set on the day you are born. How you live, what you do, who you can marry, all predetermined. There is no escape. Yet, there are over one billion Indians in India today. It would almost suggest that the caste system actually work, as far as managing the society was concerned.
In China, the people used to accept that the emperor was the son of heaven, and the rest of the common people not worthy of his presence. He could behead anyone he wishes and no one would even dare to question why. Land-lords owned the land and could oppress the poor, as and when they wish. Chaos,famine and corruption were endemic towards the final days of the feudal system in China before world war two.
Why does this happen? Are human beings doomed forever with the weakness from megalo-mania, so much so that power does literally "go to one's head" and people then completely forget the high aspirations that they initially fought for and the people that they had sworn to serve?
Or is it that we still have this primitive animal "instinct" or need to be led by a "strong" or even authoritarian leader, just like the wolf-pack?
In the final analysis, it would appear that humans have an equal and exact opposing need to belong to a "system" and yet crave for "absolute equality". Because of this deep inner conflict, it is easy to manipulate the masses, and some humans have learnt just how to do that.
Ironically, the only country that socialism actually succeeded in was the UK, and the fruits of this great effort remains until today, in the form of first class social welfare, public service, state sponsored education and health care system.
These four pillars that was set up in the immediate period after the Second World War is the reason why the British pound today still trades at £1 to US$2 despite being heavily damaged and drained by the war. It is also the reason why millions of highly intelligent people all over the world come to UK to further their studies and learn the skills and knowledge of good public service and administration. People all want to come and live in a country where the state is ultimately held responsible for the people's well being. Many countries who have adopted this way of governance have also prospered. Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong are the best examples.
Did all of this happen overnight? No. The British government before the war was as ruthless and deaf to the needs of its' own people as any dictatorship can be. The poor starved and died of the cold winters.
