Self Centered Personal Interest Drives Revolutions

Nassim Taleb would be happy that the Black Swan Theory has shown its face in various parts of the world. Tunisia, Syria and closer home Nepal.

In a sign of increasing courage and confidence, people from various parts of the world and interestingly mostly the Arab world have been raising their opposition. There has been a surge of people power rising up against the rulers.

These rulers had treated the land as personal property with ad hoc and whimsical decisions which were warped and unjust. Fundamentally the rules they framed were biased and skewed to helping a certain minority.

The natural inherent behavior of humans is selfish & being self centered. The degree of which changes and varies with different people. When a situation is perceived as unfair, this creates dissonance in peoples minds. This dissonance has again various levels. An agglomeration of dissonances creates a huge cumulative dissonance or mass explosion. And that’s how we have a revolution. I will not deny that there are exceptions but more often than not the main motivation for people to revolt is personal interest.

However it does not reach the levels of egocentrism where people have the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in terms of the self

These dissonances are lesser in many countries and hence revolutions of the kind (mentioned earlier) are not seen in such places. However smaller but effective campaigns like Anna Hazare movement against corruption in India.

It is seen that in largely democratic nations, the people are a lot happier than the non democratic ones. The fact remains that in democracies people get more avenues to voice their opinions and get themselves heard without fear or repercussions.

My predictions for the future – Burma, China  Watch Out!