The 83-year-old academic who inspired the Egyptians
Gene Sharp's how-to guide on non-violent revolution helped boot out Mubarak
By David Cairns
LAST UPDATED 11:58 AM, FEBRUARY 20, 2011 Share
An 83-year-old American whose writings on
non-violent resistance to dictatorships have been used as a 'primer' by pro-democracy protesters in Cairo and other cities in recent days says he has been humbled to see his philosophy come alive on the streets.
The key,
Gene Sharp told BBC Radio 4's
Broadcasting House this morning,
is to stop being afraid.
"Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are - they have weaknesses. And the people are never as weak as they think they are.
"Gandhi always emphasised you have to lose fear - and the Egyptians and Tunisians have demonstrated that that is possible."
However, he also warns that while overthrowing a dictatorship is possible, replacing it with an acceptable democratic process will take time.
"The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia," he writes. "Rather it opens the way for hard work and long efforts to build more just social, economic and political relationships."
Sharp was first inspired to research
brutal regimes - and peaceful ways of overthrowing them - by Albert Einstein, who noted the spread of totalitarianism in the 1950s.
Einstein wrote the foreword for Sharp's first book,
Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power: Three Case Histories, in 1960. Later, Sharp set up the
Albert Einstein Institution - a shoestring operation that exists to give advice to peaceful revolutionaries and foment non-violent rebellion.
While Sharp does have a philosophy - that totalitarian regimes share certain traits which make them vulnerable to peaceful protesters - his writings are resolutely practical.
Among other measures in his how-to guides for revolutionaries, he advocates
"Lysistratic nonaction" - where women withhold sex from their husbands until their political demands are met.
Sharp told the
Daily Beast last week that he hasn't been directly in touch with anyone in Egypt since the uprising began late last month. But he says he is happy to know that his ideas may have had some influence.
"I'm very pleased," he says. "I've been studying this question of dictatorships for many decades. It is a lonely struggle. To get this kind of recognition is very important."
This is not the first time Sharp's writings have produced action.
After he published
From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation in 1993 a retired US army colonel introduced it to Serbian activists. Inspired, the young Serbs went on to topple
Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
The book has been translated into more than 30 languages – and is available for free on Sharp's website. So many copies of the Farsi version were downloaded during anti-government protests in Iran in 2009 that
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime accused Sharp of being a US government stooge.
In fact, the Iranians aren't the only ones who have alleged Sharp is in the pay of the Gorvenment: Burma's ruling military junta and Venezuelan president
Hugo Chavez have made similar claims.
Sharp dismisses the notion that he is working for the US to destabilise foreign governments as nonsense, pointing to the shabby state of the Albert Einstein Institution's offices as evidence.
The octogenarian academic with a pivotal role in world affairs told one interviewer: "We are very small and very poor."
Filed under:
Hosni Mubarak,
Gene Sharp,
Egypt,
Middle East revolution,
Libya revolution,
Gaddafi unrest Libya,
US politics
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The 83-year-old academic who inspired the Egyptians | People in the News | People | The First Post
UJUMBE HUMU:
Wakati kijana Mmachinga shujaa Mohamed Bouazizi wa nchini Tunisia ndiye anayejikombe sifa zote kuwa (1) kitovu cha kuanza kwa motowa mabadiliko ya kizalendo kupitia Nguvu ya Umma ambayo hivi sasa yafumuka kila kona ya dunia, Uarabuni, Africa na huko Ma-Mtoni, wapo pia watu wengine nyuma mafanikio haya, japo kinadharia, nyuma ya mafanikio kuwang'oa Ben Ali na Hosni Mubarak madarakani.
Wakati falsafa wa (2) Mahatma Gandhi na matumizi ya shinikizo la Maandamano ya Nguvu ya Umma bila fujo kama silaha kiboko ya Mdikteta wote duniani, msomi mmoja Mmarekani mwenye umri wa miaka 83, (3) Ndg Gene Sharp ambaye ni mtafitii mwandamizi na mwandishi wa vitabu juu ya Mapinduzi ya Amani Nguvu ya Umma amelia mbia BBC jana kwamba amefarijika sana na kukongwa moyo ajabu KUONA JINSI MAWAZO YAKE KWENYE VITABU VYAKE YALIVYOWASAIDIA WATUNISIA NA WAMISRI KUJVUA GAMBA LA MADIKTETA BEN ALI NA HOSNI MUBARAK kiulaini zaidi ya mtu kujikamulia mdomoni 'embe dodo ilioiva'.
Babu huyu msomi mtafiti mkubwa anasema ni japo imemchukua karibu maisha yake yote akifanya tafiti mbalimbali juu ya Tawala za Kidikteta Duniani na madhaifu yao ya kuweza kupinduliwa kiulaini na wananchi wazalendo kwa njia ya maandamano ya amani, anasema mafanikio ya kazi yake ilichukua miaka mingi sana kuza matunda kule Serbia, Tunisia, Misri na kwingineko kwingi na bado moto wake unaendelea kwa kasi kubwa kwingi duniani.
Wakati Gandhi alikua ni mwanafalsa mbunifu wa wazo zima duniani, yeye Shark amekua ni mwandishi mzuri juu ya mikakati na mbinu murua mbalimbali ya kufanya wazo hili liweze kufanikiwa katika hali halisia tunamoishi.
Sharp akiwa ni mtafiti-mwandishi mahiri wa kituo cha utafiti cha Marekani cha Albert Einstein Institution, hapo mwanzoni akiwa kijana mdogo aliwahi kushawishiwa na kitabu cha Albert Einstein, Research Brutal Regimes and Peaceful Ways of Overthrowing Them,kabla ya kujitungia vitabu vyake vitokavyo na tafiti mbalimbali (
1. Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power: Three Case Histories, in 1960. na
2. From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation in 1993)
ambavyo hivi sasa matokeo yake imekuwa mwiba mchungu kwa serikali zote dhalimu, fisadi, yenye mikogo na kiburi na udikteta kwa watu wake.
Kati ya mawazo yake yenye mguso mkubwa sana duniani ni pamoja na wanawake kutumia unyumba kama silaha ya kushinikiza kwanza mabadiliko fulani yatimizwe ndio kieleweke kwa wame zao. Lakini kwa hapa kwetu kulikojaa vidumu mitaani sina uhakika kama wazo hili la mwisho lina umadhubuti unaostahili.
