> You probably noticed that Mubarak went,
> to be replaced by the army. "Obama must go" -
> and what should come to take his place?
> You've probably noticed that the U.S. political
> apparatus is very unlikely to produce someone
> much different (and quite possibly someone worse).
> What then?
I think this scorecarding approach (someone worse, someone better) kinda flattens out the dynamical character of popular movements. Granted arguendo that somebody 'worse' ends up in charge in Egypt, does it follow that Tahrir Square was a mistake, a defeat, or inconsequential? Wasn't it rather a great and encouraging moment, no matter what comes along in the next few years? The French Revolution ended up with Napoleon. Do we write it off as a failure?
Out of the frying pan into the fire seems to sum up human history, but one still wants to get out of the frying pan, no?
The critique of scorecarding is on my list of things to sit down and write carefully about one of these days, along with the critique of progress.
I can't feel too bad about "oh snap", either. Snarky one-liners are very much part of the house style at lbo-talk -- which of course suits me fine. But if any offense was given, I hope this slightly more serious response compensates somewhat.
-- --
Michael J. Smith mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org http://www.cars-suck.org http://fakesprogress.blogspot.com