Volcano of Rage

February 25, 2011 9:22 AM

'Volcano of Rage.' Arab rulers had grown too isolated, too inflated with pretense and hypocrisy, and too complacently confident in the power of their police. Their overwhelmingly youthful populations suffered perpetual humiliation at the hands of government officials, faced dim work prospects, and had little means of influencing politics. They felt, in the famous words of the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous, that they were "sentenced to hope." More sophisticated and exposed to the world than the generation that ruled them, they had lost faith in the whole patriarchal construct that seemed to hem in their lives. Max Rodenbeck writes about the overthrow of the Tunisian and Egyptian governments.
posted by russilwvong (8 comments total)

What's this past tense nonsense?
posted by spicynuts at 10:04 AM on February 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is a very good article. Thanks, russilwvong.
posted by koeselitz at 10:07 AM on February 25, 2011

Many of these (signs) were designed to provoke laughter. ... Sandwich boards demanded that Mubarak leave “so I can get a shave,” “because my arm is tired,” “so I can see my wife—we’re newlyweds.” ... a young man strutted jauntily around Tahrir with a placard that read, “You can come back now. We were just kidding. You were on candid camera.”

Wow. I love Egypt.
posted by General Tonic at 10:13 AM on February 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

With the army hunting down small bands of Ben Ali militiamen, and citizens forming their own patrols across the country, the wave of looting and vandalism lasted barely two days. State television, stultifyingly bland and adulatory for decades, almost overnight replaced the al-Jazeera satellite channel as a trusted source of news. One female presenter interrupted her chat show and in a sudden epiphany stared open-eyed at the camera. “I just realized,” she said in wonder, “I don’t have to listen to the policeman in my head anymore.”

posted by notion at 10:27 AM on February 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

I'm really apprehensive about the potential outcomes of what is taking place right now. I fear this wave will break and leave the people who are prevented from communicating with the outside world caught in a rip tide, drifting away. Then I read about this wave - somehow reaching even North Korea.
Even though some people don't have digital communication available to them I think that the way that digital communication has been used amongst those that do have it available has served to remind us of the power of exposing parasites to the daylight of public opinion.
I love the internet.
posted by vapidave at 10:34 AM on February 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

What's really interesting to me right now is the fact that the media in the UAE is reporting on the protests. Yesterday, a protest was held outside the Libyan embassy in Abu Dhabi, and it was reported on by a local radio station. This, in the place where the biggest item on the evening news was "Burj ul Arab is due to be washed today," and where locally based web forums routinely delete comments critical of the local government for fear of official censure, penalties, and/or shutdowns. I'm really curious to see what happens next here.

Great article.
posted by bardophile at 12:55 PM on February 25, 2011

Good article. It will be interesting to see what Egypt looks like in a few years.
posted by shoesietart at 3:22 PM on February 25, 2011

Opinion
A revolution against neoliberalism?
posted by hank at 9:09 PM on February 25, 2011