I think that this moving essay represents a cry of anguish emanating from deep in the throat of progressive Egyptians. They have seen their 2011 revolution crash upon the tidal waves of a militarized police state. These disillusioned activists and many ordinary Egyptians were so full of hope nourished by dreams of a better life.
Of course, these noble sentiments were manipulated by Western NGOs acting opportunistically in an organized fashion to bring about some moderate political changes in Egypt to better serve the Empire. But, revolutions or coups can never be engineered with any kind of precision as events in Egypt have demonstrated. The brutal naked fist of the Egyptian military, another hideous creation of the Empire, is now slamming down on the faces of these activists. Can you hear their cry of desperation in his words?
His cry of anguish reminds me of the famous soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet which begins:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:It is the classic cry of those who throughout the ages of class oppression have posed the most fundamental question: should one actively fight back against oppression and risk near certain death which "makes cowards of us all", or submit to the class authorities and continue to suffer the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". It is the ultimate question which we will all be confronting at different times as the juggernaut of capitalist exploitation increasingly wrecks havoc on societies and nature.
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
