The stray winds of the Internet brought to my desk the following piece by Rex Murphy. It doesn’t add much (anything) new to the debate, but it does offer a rather neat digest of a pseudo-liberal argument; the argument used by conservative commentators who enjoy applauding distant Middle Easterners fighting to find a voice, but quickly get cold feet when the same struggle erupts a little closer to home.
Serious protests, involving grave issues, with real risks and real moral purpose, are going on all over the world. They match life-and-death risk with the value of what is at stake: the human rights of citizens suffering under dictatorial governments. We can only hope that the eyes of the demonstrators in Syria don’t get the news of the tantrum going on in democratic Quebec… What’s going on in Quebec is not a protest. It’s a parody of one: the future elite of Quebec having a self-indulgent fit… Let’s just hope that no one in Syria has been paying attention.
Look: It doesn’t matter that in Cairo the original rallying flag was protesting a dictatorship, in Montreal – tuition fees and in Tel Aviv, originally, rent. Quebec, Wall Street, London, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Cairo, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain are all part of the same Spring, because in all those cases multitudes of people are realising that it’s not that they are apolitical, but that the political system in their countries is inadequate at safeguarding and expressing their interests. That each system is geared primarily to preserve the status quo, and that status quo no longer tolerable, and needs to and can be overthrown. So someone sneeringly comparing “future elites having a self-indulgent fit” to the Brave Egyptians or the Fearless Syrians isn’t supporting the Arab Revolution. He’s merely revealing what side he is really on, and, whatever plaudits he pays revolutions happening at a safe distance, what side he would probably be in any other place the Spring has visited: The side of the status quo.
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caden
I’d like to get Lara Logan’s opinion on the fearless Egyptians.
Kolumn9
Did you just compare protesting the prices of cottage cheese to fighting against an oppressive dictatorship?
.
No, it isn’t the same spring, it isn’t even the same century.
A
Sorry Dimi, on the academic level you may have a point here, but we are not talking academics now. In real life it hardly the same. And despite the fact that I’m sympathetic to the cause in tel aviv and Cairo, it is not the same, just happened to be in the same year.
Philos
Of course it’s the same. In developed states the forms of repression are more subtle so it takes time or a real crisis (like Greece) for the people to violently rise up like in Egypt or Syria. Unfortunately for the Egyptians and Syrians they are still very poor so it will take them some time before they realize they’ve been conned by the lie of capitalist liberal democracy.
Kolumn9
There is no possible form of government that doesn’t exercise some form of repression. Are then any and all protests against any government the same as Tahrir? That is a pretty low bar.
harvey stein
@Caden: if you work in employ of the devil for long enough, your permanent address is Hell…..
More generally: No two phenomena are identical! But there is clearly a morphic resonance happening around the world, due in large part to instant communication, TV, the internet, etc. People SEE what is possible, that there are others in distant and different cultures who are taking the future in their own hands, and they want to too.
The status quos are of course not identical though. No one knows exactly how to dismantle the Occupation, let alone capitalism. But the democratic instinct (the answer will become known when XXXX people join forces to find it) is expressing itself. It’s crowdsourcing, and it’s new to the 21st century.
One more bit: just as in any successful social change movement (Civil Rights, feminism), real change only happens when coalitions across various groups happen. With the Occupation, I think if enough Israelis made common cause with enough West Bank Palestinians, with mass West Bank non-violent demonstrations that were at least 5-10% Israelis, shit would happen. Conversely, if coalitions don’t happen (social change people in Israel terrified of “alienating the masses” by not connecting with anti-Occupation people), nada…..
XYZ
Philos-
What sort of government do you recommend for the Egyptians and everyone else, if not “liberal capitalist democracy”?
Andrea
Good piece, Dimi. However, it’s a stretch to call Rex Murphy a liberal. He’s more of an equal opportunity hater and snob. He applauded the protester in Tahrir Square, not out of genuine concern, but to add a patina of liberalism to cover his reactionary heart.
Dimi Reider
Cheers andrea – that came out a bit muddled, but I actually said he’s a conservative using a pseudo-liberal argument. Although I”m sure he thinks of himself as quite enlightened and forward-thinking.
Lise Ravary
How can one compare the sufferings of Egypt, Syria, Bahrain to a university fees hike representing 50 cents a day in a place where tuition fees are already the lowest in the entire continent !
Nizo
Palestinian and Montrealer (for 20 years now) and I tell you that it’s not Cairo that came to Montreal. Cairo could have been the catalyst, but what’s going on here has deeper roots.
Access to higher education for the Quebecois (French-Canadians) has been one of the major accomplishments of the Quiet Revolution. Higher education in Quebec was previously an Anglo privilege. This is why when Quebec premier Jean Charest increased tuition he touched a raw nerve and provoked a very particular segment of the population.
In the same vein, the protests (which I get to watch every day because of where I live and work) have a very strong separatist flavour. A Bush-like right wing government in Ottawa has helped alienate a large contingent of Quebec’s population which is now expressing itself.
Canada’s dollar, strong because of Albertan oil has killed off the manufacturing sector in Quebec (and Ontario). While Alberta is sitting pretty and booming, Quebec is going through a rough patch and many of these kids will likely have to leave the province for jobs.
This is merely the surface. It’s a complex situation which you (inadvertently/carelessly) simplified when you lumped everyone in the same boat:
“Quebec, Wall Street, London, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Cairo, Tunisia, Syria, Bahrain are all part of the same Spring”
Dimi Reider
Nizo – first off welcome, I’m quite the fan of your own blog
Second – you’re right, of course, that there are vast differences between the situation and that the resolutions that these processes might eventually arrive it will be different. In some places it’ll be internal reform, in others, very possibly Quebec, secession, in some places – maybe both (some noises coming from the Kurdish direction in Syria spring to mind, although an actual secession there right now appears unlikely). But from what I can pick up from the distance and from conversations with Quebecois friends, I still think that the four components valid in many other venues of the Spring are valid in Montreal: 1. A young generation increasingly alienated from the ruling system 2. Realisation it doesn’t have to be that way 3. Direct and powerful inspiration from young people in other country’s who’ve realised the same and acted on it, in a largely non-partisan manner. I could be wrong, but it still seems all are closely related, even if the desired outcomes are different in many ways.
delia ruhe
Don’t take Rex Murphy too seriously. Canadians don’t. He’s something of a joke — an entertaining one who gets 5 minutes a week on CBC television to lighten up the mood following a deeply serious analysis of political issues featuring 3 or 4 of Canada’s most astute analysts.
Ruth
Nizo,
Good analysis. You need to reactivate your blog! I miss your informative yet funny voice! I learned and laughed when I visited your blog.