this is one of those moments that can take someone in the states whose viewpoint is of the side of the mirror that people are told to look at here and shift them by giving them a clear view of the opposite side of that mirror....you can see the american imperial order at work, you can see how it has operated and how it continues to operate. you can see the importance of repressive, brutal tyrants like hosni mubarak for american policy. you can see how this has transcended the superficial differences between the two conservative parties that divide power amongst themselves in the american oligarchy. you can see why people around the world simply do not believe that the united states stands for any of the things it claims to stand for---how could they? ho could people demonstrating in cairo tell themselves that the american government supports their aspirations for freedom when they **know** that the united states has supported mubarak, funded and armed mubarak's regime?
fortunately almost everywhere there is still a distinction drawn between the american state/empire and the people who live in the united states---so if you hear infotainment stream talking heads say "they hate us" it's inevitably a lie---people hate the american empire, and rightly so. it should burn, and burn it will. but that empire is not the only possibility for the united states.
i maintain the pollyanna belief that people in the states will be inspired by people in cairo and will dissolve the neo-liberal oligarchy before it's incoherence dissolves us.
there's no hope for the "intervention" in egypt. i don't even know what that would mean. the united states is acting in/on egypt now in an attempt to maintain some control regardless of what happens---aligning with the army but not quite coming out against mubarak---empty blah blah blah in vague support of the people but nothing too strong....
i would like to see the united states come out clearly against mubarak.
time to go hosni dear. retire. buh-bye.
meanwhile, back in egypt:
Egypt protests - live updates | World news | guardian.co.uk
Quote:
The Egyptian Nobel prize-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif gives an eyewitness account of yesterday's protests:
If I were not writing this, I would still be out on the street. Every single person I know is out there; people who have never been to protests are wrapping scarves around their faces and learning that sniffing vinegar helps you get through teargas.
Once, a long time ago, my then young son, watching a young man run to help an old man who had dropped a bag in the middle of the street, said: 'The thing about Egypt is that everyone is very individual, but also part of a great co-operative project'. Today, we are doing what we do best, and what this regime has tried to destroy: we have come together, as individuals, in a great co-operative effort to reclaim our country.
|