Notes On the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions

First he emptied the prisons. Then Hosni Mubarak sent in his paid thugs. The sclerotic and violent coward who has ruled Egypt with an iron fist for three decades will not exit gracefully. He vowed to "die in this land." From his lips to God's ear.

Mubarak wants to turn Tahrir Square (Freedom Square) into Tiananmen Square. Perhaps he fancies himself a Deng Xiaoping or a Li Peng. There are, no doubt, many powerful people around the world--from Washington to Riyadh, from Jerusalem to Beijing, from Teheran to Moscow, from Baghdad to Kabul--who are hoping against hope that the Egyptian Revolution will fail.

But the Egyptian Revolution will not fail. It cannot fail. There is far too much at stake for it to fail.

Besides, what we are seeing in Tahrir Square is the real Egypt. Anyone who knows Egyptians personally and who has been to Egypt recognizes that what has been happening over the past week is not the madness of crowds (as Mubarak and even some compliant Western media outlets would like to see it portrayed). It is the genius of collective action. It is the genius of the mass when it has been roused to claim its birthright of freedom.

And not only is this the real Egypt, but it is the real Saudi Arabia. The real Iraq and Afghanistan. The real Algeria and Libya, Morocco and Indonesia. It is the real People's Republic of China, the real Pakistan, and it could be the real United States if the people of these States were to awaken from the dream of Self and begin to reach out to one another.

But we are a timid people, raised on the culture of fear. Our Liberalism comforts us, even as it helps to inure us to our present condition as the slavish ennablers of the National Security State. As that great revolutionary and proto-Romantic J.J. Rousseau taught us so long ago: Men are born free, but they are everywhere in chains.

Everywhere.

But this need not be the final word. We can combat our fears. We can overcome them. Look to Tunisia. Look to Egypt. Be not afraid.

Where is Al-Qaeda in all of this? Do you see it in Tahrir Square? Of course not. You cannot see a fiction. Al-Qaeda is a brand name, a convenient label cooked up in the craven and fevered imaginations of neo-fascistic neo-cons in order to play upon the worst (and let us be candid) racist suspicions of white Americans. It is a label applied indiscriminately by politicians (who should know better) and journalists (who should also know better) to resistance movements when, on their fringes, they turn violent.

But we don't have to listen to the Reverend Jim Jones anymore. We don't have to drink the Kool-Aid. This is not the Christian dystopia of the People's Temple on its misguided errand in the jungles of Guyana.

We are free people, and courageous, if we will to be.

Let us stand, then, in solidarity with all of free humanity as we see it displayed in Tunis and Cairo, Alexandria and Amman, Sudan and the Yemen.

Ever mindful of Tiananmen Square, let us build our own Tahrir Squares--in these States and every other. Let us demand the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan--and that includes an end to the U.S.-installed puppet regimes in those countries.

Let us demand an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

Let us reclaim Jerusalem as a city sacred to all the children of Abraham--and to anyone else who wishes to see it that way.

Indeed, let us all be children of another Abraham, the one who stood on a battlefield in Pennsylvania and rededicated his countrymen to a "new birth of freedom." These are words we memorize in school and hallow in memory but live up to only imperfectly.

Such is life.

Let us not dwell upon our failures now for this is not a time of failure. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt are succeeding. There will be set-backs, but there can be no turning back. For once freedom has been tasted, the die is cast, and there is no turning back.

All hail the brave and beautiful peoples of Egypt and Tunisia! Let us rise up and become the brave and beautiful peoples that we ourselves were born to be!