Political Instability in Egypt - Essay Example

Mubarak has been oppressing the rise of rebellion for many months in order to keep the centralized power. This clearly relates to Mill’s On Liberty, as the dictator is trying to maintain harmony and status quo. He clearly uses this to for explaining the necessity of a political sovereign state (Mill). Furthermore, he insists on a sovereign leader with absolute power that would bring security and calmness to people. In addition, he himself insists on this fact, since he witnessed a civil war that tore his country.

The evil that lurks in unlimited power is the focal point of Mill’s argument. Undoubtedly, Mill’s argument for absolutism is due to the fact that the state of nature is indeed war (Mill). Mill’s main agenda is to show that, rationally, men will seek peace against the state of nature of conflict behavior. Mill’s bold attempt to convince the fact that men are creatures of peace in a state of nature is, nonetheless, a difficult thing to prove since mankind is struggling in constant warfare (Mill).

Thus, Mill’s explanation of conflict is complex and hard to comprehend since, even in perfect conditions, certain man will rise to occasion to challenge authority (Mill). It’s human nature to seek pride, glory and fame; without doubt, humanity will continue to be engrossed in these acts because it can never be satisfied. Clearly, the author’s task is to show that the nature of men is complex. Mill’s theory elaborates that men are instrumentally designed to seek rationality in all instances for their best self-interest (Mill).

Thus, this is the reason for the general tendency of mankind to desire power after power until death strikes them. The competition does not rise from the general scarcity of resources but Mill does not imply that. He implies that when distributed equally, even if insufficient for fulfillment of community needs, resources will never be sufficient for the satisfaction of certain people’s quest to obtain more power (Mill). People in their state of nature tend to have mistrust and compete for natural competition of power.

Thus, the people of Egypt have revolted because of lack of free elections, high unemployment, corruption that plagues the country, and restriction of free speech. Egypt was less than a month away from holding parliamentary elections after Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power earlier this year. The natural competition for men to elect a leader that can protect their interest is crucial for Egypt (Brennan). Mill states that if the leader under power cannot provide his people with sustenance, a rebellion can threaten to change the status quo (Brennan).

Clearly, Mubarak failed to give his people the free democratic elections he promised earlier. For many decades, the mass majority of the populous was surprised to see Mubarak’s party known as the National Democratic Party win by huge margins (Jensen, 2010). Many began to question the true cause of these results and accusations of vote rigging, fraud and bribery have been the focal point against Mubarak’s campaign. Hence, according to Mill, a revolution is almost guaranteed when individuals have little or no impact in the politics that govern themselves (Mill).

Another key element Mill discusses in his work is brilliantly illustrated in this particular scenario. It is the fact that individuals are likely to rebel if unemployment plagues the region. This scene can be brilliantly depicted