"The American power structure has been set reeling by something that is simply outside the boundaries of their mental universe: a non-violent, non-sectarian, non-ideological, leaderless revolution by ordinary people."
For a few days, the imperial gang thought they had turned the tide --
and their stenographers in the mainstream media followed suit. The
protests in Egypt were running out of gas, we were told; now the power
players were coming to the fore, in Washington and Cairo, to take charge
of the situation and move things along -- slowly, moderately -- down a
path of gradual reform and stability.
Newspapers ran pictures of
the "nearly empty" Tahrir Square, sometimes in tandem with pictures of
last week's massive crowds. We saw shots of Egyptians "getting back to
normal life" -- going to the bank, shopping for shoes, crossing the
street in suit, tie and briefcase on the way to the office. Attention
was turned to the "moderate" figure who had taken the reins in Cairo, the dictator-appointed security chief Omar Suleiman.
He was strongly backed by the Obama Administration as just the kind of
steady, moderate hand we needed to make judicious concessions to the
opposition without allowing the country to slip beyond the control of
Washington's foreign policy agenda. The general line among the imperial
courtiers and their media sycophants was that the uprising had reached
its peak and was now receding.
It was all a lie, part of the
remarkably witless self-delusion that has afflicted the Washington-Cairo
power structure from the beginning of the uprising: the illusion that
they are still in control of events, that they can tinker a bit here, recalibrate a bit there, and still end up with the same system of elite domination and corruption basically in place.
But
what we did see on Tuesday? The false reality painted for us by our
betters simply melted away, and Cairo saw perhaps the largest protest
yet, as hundreds of thousands of people filled Tahrir Square --
including multitudes who were joining the uprising for the first time.
Thousands more were gathering in front of the Parliament building in
what the Guardian rightly called "a second front" of the uprising. And
the Cairo crowds were joined by thousands massing in Alexandria, Suez
and other cities across the nation.
And oh, how that stung Washington's new lordling! Suleiman immediately resorted to the same bluste r we have heard from America's henchmen since time out of mind. He put it plainly: "There will be no ending of the regime." He railed against the "presence of protestors in Tahrir Square and some satellite stations insulting Egypt and belittling it" -- obviously a reference to al-Jazeera -- and declared: "We can't put up with this for a long time." And he sounded the time-honored "more in sorrow than in anger" note of all two-bit tyrants, saying that he hoped the protests would end because "we don't want to deal with Egyptian society with police tools."
This is pretty rich coming from the man who has been directly in charge of doing just that to Egyptian society for many years. The only way the corrupt regime has kept itself in power is by "dealing with Egyptian society with police tools."
These be your gods, O Progressives! This is the man your champion had championed to "manage" the "transition" in Egypt from the dead hand of a discredited dictator to a backroom string-puller lacquered with a new coat of PR. Of course, when word of Suleiman's private temper tantrum leaked out, the Obama Administration began to backpedal on the firm support for Suleiman it had shown earlier in the day (which had come complete with a long phone call from Suleiman's long-time friend, Joe Biden). Now, the White House was troubled by these "unhelpful" remarks. Unhelpful indeed -- for they gave the game away too soon. Wrong-footed by this unforeseen outpouring of popular will, Washington has not been able to cobble together a proper storyline to justify a violent crackdown by the regime.
The American power structure has been set reeling by something that is simply outside the boundaries of their mental universe: a non-violent, non-sectarian, non-ideological, leaderless revolution by ordinary people. Our power structuralists know only one thing: violent domination. Since that is what they seek to impose, they believe that anyone who opposes them must seek the same. They cannot conceive of anything different. They don't know how to react to such an incomprehensible event. There's no one to demonize. There are no armed groups to flex their muscles against -- or to make a cynical deal with, if necessary. (Violent dominationists of every stripe have much in common; they know each other's minds, they can often come to terms, if only temporarily -- like Hitler and Stalin, or Reagan and Saddam.) The poltroons on the Potomac are dumbstruck as they look at these crowds of people who have freed themselves, who just walked out into the streets and claimed their human freedom -- on their own, individual by individual, with no "authority", no leader, no armies to "grant" them what is already theirs by their birthright, our birthright, on this our common planet.
It is now past midnight as I write. This has been a great day in Egypt -- a day when truth tore through the lies and made fools of the killers, thieves and torturers trying to impose their cankered will on free people. May we see more such great days ahead -- in Egypt and around the world.
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