A Modern Revolution

Revolutions have a way of stirring the conscience of people who witness its unfurling. It sweeps in as a wave, carrying forward the dissent of a million, the response to which is often bloody, but the conclusion, a soaring victory of ordinary voices.

The flames that literally torched Tunisia’s dictatorship, are now consuming Egypt’s infeasible government. For now, the wildfire seems to have enough energy to power itself through to a historical association with the great revolutions of our times. The magnitude of participation is unprecedented in the Arab world, and the consequences for now remain vaguely describable.

Egypt’s biblical history is possibly the most recorded and re-dramatized of all the ancient civilizations. The Pharaohs and their mummified remains have possessed Hollywood and produced innumerable great documentaries of a period far removed from ours, yet whose ways and methods continue stun our senses. The country has experienced its share of prolonged and dissatisfactory governance earlier. The chants that echo through Tahrir square for the removal Mubarak’s unwelcome, three decade long presence is a path to self-determination for Egypt’s people.

Revolutions usually spawn icons of liberation and new scales of thought. A contrast when compared to the outburst seen here that has exhibited the citizens’ disgust in its respective leaders, but strangely moves ahead with no individual to chart the nations’ future course.

Even India’s journey to independence is a story of mass movements. Obviously the circumstances were different, but certainly the rush and emotion of crowded streets, vein-strained necks and the unifying force of human contact must remain the same.

The problem with sudden unrest, especially political ones, is that without clarity on the future mandate, course correction remains inevitably chaotic. These protests do not have an organised leadership channelling the crowd’s energy. Therein lays the problem for such movements. A surging crowd is magnificent and ominous as it charges in, but science professes that energy tends to gravitate towards a zero energy state equilibrium to minimise chaos and maximize stability. Time is a constraint in these circumstances and optimum use of this dimension is imperative to assure that aspirations of those gathered do not fizzle out.

The images of men atop horses and camels at the Liberation square would have done the great Omar Sharrif proud of his Arab thespian lineage reminiscent of his role in Lawrence of Arabia, but sadly it would be the disillusionment of this reality that would worry him. Clubs and sticks were weapons of our medieval past, while dialogue and peaceful protest should define our present and future.

ElBaradei is the global face of the opposition. He is a Nobel Prize winner and a distinguished diplomat. But is he a leader who feels the pulse of his nation, one who can douse the leaping vigour of discontentment through tangible administrative remedies? Egypts march is not a struggle against tyranny of a foreign rule. This fact compounds the nation’s problems as it pounds its way towards new political aspirations. How will they cope without a rule that has shadowed them for nearly 30 years, adhering themselves as a close Western ally?

What Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.Jr inherently possessed was a sense of timing. They understood the threshold of patience and suffering of their people even while they fought for their God-given rights. Even this sea of humanity that came out to drive out and usher in a new regime will melt away as the days’ progress. The need of the hour is to make the most of this coalescence. There is safety in numbers, but remember a herd is always led by a wise and tempered soul.Till such time, hope prevails for a bloodless Nile.