The Promise and the Peril

Of all the things a history junkie like myself could be blessed enough to witness, the Egyptian Revolution just may take the cake. What we have just seen in the oldest nation on earth is a big deal. And it did not just end; it just began.

At a bare minimum, the Egyptian Revolution already stands with the other great revolutions of history. The Spartacus revolt against Rome. The American and French Revolutions. The Russian and Chinese Revolutions. The Iranian Revolution. And now Egypt.

But the Egyptian revolution stands apart. It is the only one of the above-mentioned pantheon that was non-violent. It was more Martin Luther King than Mao Tse Tung, more Mohatma Gandi than Maximillian Robespierre.

And not only was it non-violent; it was popular. There has never been anything like this. For 3 weeks, without pause, a huge percentage of an entire nation of people staged a protracted sit-in.

Most revolutions are conceived and executed by a small group of elite intellectuals. Our Founding Fathers may have believed in some sort of democracy, but they certainly did not let their countrymen vote on whether to violently secede from the British Empire. If they had held such a vote, they would have lost.

Likewise, the Russian Revolution, in many ways the most radical of all history, was carried out by a closed and secretive group of Bolsheviks. Many revolutions appear popular either at first or in retrospect, but in reality are co-opted by small cliques of ideologues and psychopaths. Russia and Iran come to mind.

Americans are such a young breed at 235 years of age that it is hard for us to put Egypt in perspective. It can be said that Egypt invented kingship. It can also be said that this is the first time in Egypt's 5000 plus years that it has not had a Pharaoh, whether in the form of King Tut, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, or some sclerotic army officer.

The real revolution, however, has not ended. It has only begun. A real revolution would require the positive aspirations of the people. We all now know what Egyptians don't want, but now they must organize their 80 millions into a rational and cohesive articulation of what they do want.

And as inspiring as revolutions can be, the reason they are so rare is because of the universal truth that it is far easier to destroy than to build.