Unfinished Revolution: Discussion on Egypt (Video)
Video of the Cross Talk discussion with myself, Wael Eskandar and Ariel Ratner. "Egypt's revolution is in crisis. Will it lead to revolution 2.0? The current political establishment has barely had enough time to govern – does this mean the country is at a dead-end? Does the opposition only want to see the current powers fail? Could it do a better job?"
Karl - I would be interested in hearing your response to Mr. Ratner's statement toward the end of that program to the effect that the object of the revolutionaries is not to take power, but to diffuse it (given the changing realities of power in the age of the social media and globalization). I'm not sure what to make of that statement (coming from someone who used to work for the US government, at that) at a time when Egypt is in the midst of political chaos, and with uncertain prospects of keeping the population fed.
I don't agree with Ratner on that, I think it's a recipe for confusion and chaos. In fact your point about the fact that we used to work for the US government is spot on, he talked about this new form of non-vertical organisation but the US is obviously anything but that. And somehow he misinterpreted my point to mean that I support a return of the old order. To me there's no other option, there has to be an alternative political power in Egypt and it has to drive change dynamically, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. And the MB are failing at that.
Karl - I would be interested in hearing your response to Mr. Ratner's statement toward the end of that program to the effect that the object of the revolutionaries is not to take power, but to diffuse it (given the changing realities of power in the age of the social media and globalization). I'm not sure what to make of that statement (coming from someone who used to work for the US government, at that) at a time when Egypt is in the midst of political chaos, and with uncertain prospects of keeping the population fed.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with Ratner on that, I think it's a recipe for confusion and chaos. In fact your point about the fact that we used to work for the US government is spot on, he talked about this new form of non-vertical organisation but the US is obviously anything but that. And somehow he misinterpreted my point to mean that I support a return of the old order.
DeleteTo me there's no other option, there has to be an alternative political power in Egypt and it has to drive change dynamically, precisely for the reasons you mentioned. And the MB are failing at that.