Revolutionary Tangents

Like many of my fellow countrymen, I have discovered Al-Jazeera English over the past few days, watching the live feed of the Egyptian people defending Tahrir Square against the defenders of the Mubarak dictatorship. As I write those words, I am struck by the the rather quaint, anachronistic notion of a public square being the focus of a liberatory struggle. Like Beijing (Tianenmen Square) in 1989 or Prague (Wenceslas Square) in 1968 and 1989, just to name two cities that have seen convulsive revolutions in recent years (if I may permitted the liberty of claiming 40-plus years as "recent" in a society in which any year pre-Ipod may as well be the era of home-churned butter), Cairo is the center of a civilization of great significance both ancient and modern (the two battles of El Alamein were turning points of World War II, and the 1956 Suez Canal crisis a fiasco for the former colonial powers Britain and France). And, if the pitched street battles that have pitted the improvisational ingenuity of the antigovernment protesters against the outnumbered but well-armed pro-government thugs are any indication, it appears that Tahrir is the carotid artery through which the blood of Egyptian cultural pride flows.

I am, of course, tempted to do an internet search on the term "Tahrir Square," and glean its specific historical narrative. I am aware that tahrir translates as liberation, but does the area have ancient significance, the way Mexico City occupies the same space as the ancient city that once dominated Aaztec political and economic life? Or was it a legacy of independence from colonialism, perhaps associated with Nasser? Whatever the larger context, and whatever the eventual results of the Egyptian uprising, the desperate courage shown by the occupiers of Liberation Square will inspire for many years.

But what can we expect from this uprising, particularly given the failures of the Prague Spring and Tianenman Square at their respective times? Was the 1989 Velvet Revolution and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall the result of the most immediate actions surrounding them, or should they be considered unthinkable without the 1956 Hungarian uprising (contemporaneous with Suez, incidentally), the Prague Spring and the Polish Solidarity movement of the early 1980's? Will the next few years bring a revolution in China that will finally realize the promise of Tianenman? Will Tunisia and Egypt be follwed by Jordan? Or Yemen? Or even Ireland or Greece? Or even (gasp) the United States, racked by political corruption, economic stagnation and increasingly unsustainable imperial commitments? The final scenario seems ludicrously unlikely, of course, but how likely did Egyptian revolt seem even weeks ago?

In 1848, revolution swept across almost the entirety of Europe, without the benefit of the instantaneous communication that our gadgets offer us today (at least when terrified governments don't disable them). 2011 may be the equivalent for the Arab world... or maybe even beyond.