A less obvious, but extremely important reason why the success of the Egyptian revolution is crucial: its potential to restore a discourse of agency to the Arab people.
For too long, cynicism has dominated popular politics in the Middle East. Local people blame international conspiracies for their problems--while turning a blind eye to the complicity inherent in their own complacency. The discourse of victimhood, unhinged to any strategy of empowerment, is the status quo's best friend.
The only two ideologies to gain significant followings in the Middle East over the past 60 years are Nasserism (Arab nationalism) and Islamism. Both gained traction because they empowered Arabs to overcome their humility. Rather than being doomed to foreign domination, Arabs belonged to proud, ancient civilizations, and were thus destined to rise again.
Unfortunately, Nasserism was based on both fantasy--the idea that the Arab world could unite under one (Egyptian-led) government--and on a fiction--that a "one-party republic" could lead to something other than dictatorship.
Islamism, likewise, is based on the fantasy of Islamic unity, and on the fiction that Islam can solve the problems of modern governance. Alas, the Quran has no prescriptions for reducing unemployment.
The Egyptian people, by rediscovering agency, have a chance to end this perverse cycle of rationalized decadence, while avoiding the dead-end of utopian fantasy. The route forward is not to be found in grand ideologies or in great men, but in the only system to ever produce freedom from tyranny: liberal democracy.
- Jon
P.S. I know that Tunisia is already more than a few steps ahead of Egypt. But the hard truth is that in Egypt, the modern leader of the Arab world, the stakes are much, much higher.
For too long, cynicism has dominated popular politics in the Middle East. Local people blame international conspiracies for their problems--while turning a blind eye to the complicity inherent in their own complacency. The discourse of victimhood, unhinged to any strategy of empowerment, is the status quo's best friend.
The only two ideologies to gain significant followings in the Middle East over the past 60 years are Nasserism (Arab nationalism) and Islamism. Both gained traction because they empowered Arabs to overcome their humility. Rather than being doomed to foreign domination, Arabs belonged to proud, ancient civilizations, and were thus destined to rise again.
Unfortunately, Nasserism was based on both fantasy--the idea that the Arab world could unite under one (Egyptian-led) government--and on a fiction--that a "one-party republic" could lead to something other than dictatorship.
Islamism, likewise, is based on the fantasy of Islamic unity, and on the fiction that Islam can solve the problems of modern governance. Alas, the Quran has no prescriptions for reducing unemployment.
The Egyptian people, by rediscovering agency, have a chance to end this perverse cycle of rationalized decadence, while avoiding the dead-end of utopian fantasy. The route forward is not to be found in grand ideologies or in great men, but in the only system to ever produce freedom from tyranny: liberal democracy.
- Jon
P.S. I know that Tunisia is already more than a few steps ahead of Egypt. But the hard truth is that in Egypt, the modern leader of the Arab world, the stakes are much, much higher.
