What is happening in Egypt is remarkable. It is remarkable for a load of reasons, but one is truly remarkable above all the others. This revolution has no leader. It is driven by spontaneous people power, working together through modern instant communication technology. The masses became one. Almost between one week and the next one of the most secure regimes among the autocracies of the middle east collapsed. The implications for the world are huge, though yet unmeasurable.
The first part of the revolution has been completed with the triumph of the people. The second part, the establishment of a pluralist democracy, has yet to happen. Nothing is in place, or ready to be put together, to facilitate this. For a people who can make a successful revolution in a fortnight this should not prove an obstacle.
Nevertheless the country is now under military rule which is definitely not democracy. The army, which occupies the kind of status and respect among the population as did the military in the old state of Prussia, has promised transition. The people have accepted this promise at face value. They expect the army to deliver. However it is a two way street. If the various groupings and individuals who will make up the new body politic of a democratic Egypt cannot agree a way forward and begin to fall out among themselves creating deadlock, the army may conclude the people have squandered their opportunity and re-establish an authoritarian regime.
Certainly the people can see the light, but they are not yet out of the wood. If they do finally emerge into the clear it will be a triumph indeed. One of the epic triumphs of history.
I like this post, enjoyed this one thank you for putting up. “Money is a poor man’s credit card.” by Herbert Marshall McLuhan.