We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Revolution Will be Self-Organized, Tahrir, #May27 (part 1)

Click here to access article by Zeynep Tufekci from her blog, Technosociology. 

The author has recently been in Egypt trying to gain some insights on the current political situation there. I am posting this because I think it important that we keep informed regarding events in this strategic country and I have great trust in her judgement and perceptions.
I cannot give an account of the complex political discussions taking place among activists and among the Egyptian. Instead, I am going to try to communicate the “spirit of Tahrir” as I witnessed it: festive, self-organized cautious, sharply political and ambitious.