Denial Is A Revolution In Egypt

I am rather ambivalent towards the news out of Egypt. It seems Mubarak won't be allowed to create a dynasty, but the wider party, the people who've been in charge all these years, are still in charge. I believe the very concept of revolution works for these people; the bureaucrats have found the perfect way to stay in power all the time while making it look like things are changing politically. They don't even need to be particularly violent anymore.

What people seem to be missing is that you need government to remove freedoms, not grant them. If you have a banana you have a banana, the only real purpose of organized government is to take it away from you in a legal way, rather than just stealing it and at least being honest. Revolution suggests the opposite, that you don't have anything until some force overcomes the oppressor and gives you your freedom, your health care, your education, and your banana.

I'll grant that we at least need courts, but they were originally intended to provide restitution and stop the thieves. Indeed, a dynasty with an interest in keeping Egypt a healthy and wealthy realm to pass on to children could possibly figure this stuff out, but then the average bureaucrat would get thrown into jail. If you are going to have a parasite, you are better off picking the parasite capable of long term thinking.

So, I suspect the Egyptian elites will find protesters who think similarly to them. They'll grab some young communists and/or socialists, or maybe just a few average befuddled twenty somethings and put a bright shiny face on the same old game. Or shoot people, if things get out of hand. Will things get out of hand? I don't know. Do folks in Egypt think they've won? Are they tired of supply disruptions? Will they gratefully trade food, electricity, and connectivity for their momentum while deluding themselves that their lives will change much as things stand now?

There is that other R word, restoration, which I think would help folks understand where they are. Has what was stolen from you been returned? Has your government stopped pledging your child's future income in order to pay off the debt incurred via their wasteful programs? Can you raise real food, transact business, or other wise use your resources as you see fit, without someone interfering? A restoration is long overdue, but the language of revolution precludes it; instead we just instantly re-politicize everything, often with those same bureaucrats running the show. May it cease to be so.