On the Road Again

Scary Brown Guys Doing Scary Stuff

Out and about. Down in Florida and using an unsecured Internet from some condo around here. It claims to only have about a fifth of the connectivity possible, but it is faster than then mine at home. Hmmm.

Following Egypt and the strange goings on, not in Egypt, but in America's reaction to it. Today apparently we are happy with the democratic revolt as evidenced by the military over throwing Mubarak to replace him with, who? I'm a little behind, are we still backing the 25 year secret police and torturer as the last best hope for democracy in Egypt? I've been following the whole thing by reading headlines in the various newspapers that are on sale next to the Interstate in Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

Interesting points (or in reality should I say point) of view. In Daytona the secondary headline of the local Sunday paper was that Israel felt safe with the Egyptian Army taking control. That says it.

Egypt and the revolts in Egypt and the other countries in the region are pretty much the most important things going on in the world right now. I keep thinking of the revolts of 1848 and 1968 and wonder if this will be another round of very brief liberal flowerings followed by generations of repression and reaction, or I guess not. At least I don't get paid a lot of money to say things like that. I'm just a hick from the middle of the good old U.S. of A. who has never been there so I have to rely on the news media to tell me what is happening and we know that the news media mostly make up what is happening. Hell, they mostly make up everything about Egypt.

I mean isn't Egypt a county that is moving toward the middle class life style we are all aspiring to be a part of with a mostly free, although slightly (ever so slightly) authoritarian government which the people when given the opportunity are happy to vote back in? Or is it all hooey?

I kind of feel the way I feel when people try to get me into a discussion of a film or book that is very controversial and I haven't seen or read. Like say The Passion of the Christ. Of course in that case I guess I could have seen the movie, but I really didn't feel like it.

So as far as I know it is entirely possible that the entire thing only is a fiction designed to raise my gas prices.

The one thing I can say for sure is that the reaction of Americans is something to behold. Listening to NPR last week on the way to work I listened to a woman who claimed to be a student who had been in Egypt for only a couple of weeks when the revolt broke out. He area of study was middle eastern studies. She was desperate to leave and was waiting at the air port for a plane out to anywhere. How sad. Had I been in her shoes at her age there is no question that no matter how stupid it might be I would have stayed there and watched history unfold. What could she teach if and when she gets her degree?

There was another NPR commentator who seemed to be surprised that the demonstrators would stay in the streets even though it was possible that their pay checks for that week might not be available.

Mostly of course, it was how this might affect the American Empire, although no one called it by that name. Empire is not a word that is used in polite society. We are merely worried that the people in Egypt might not be mature enough to elect a government that would adequately protect the interests of the average person and hold those in power to the same standards as the average citizen.