Delegitimization

First, let me say that this entry is no more than a simple venting of several repeated, and apparently accepted by many, talking points that I've heard repeated ad nauseum over the past few weeks.

1. Despite the massive support I've seen for the Egyptian protests, there is considerable resistance to the idea by many who tend to be found on the right. The nay-saying goes as follows: They're not used to democracy, it won't go right and will result in inequalities, etc. I'm sure if I pulled out a history book and deconstructed our dominant narrative piece by piece, I could find some pretty gaping inequalities in between our proclaiming to be a democratic, free, land and our practice. I'm sure I could find examples of genocide, slavery, gender domination, class inequality, all of which were socially considered acceptable and resisted by a relative and comparative few. I'm sure I could find injustices in our society today that are considered "fine" yet unacceptable when placed next to our stated ideals. Our democratic republic is not perfect and never has been. To place a bar of expectation on the Egyptians that we ourselves have never attained is suspect.

2. There has been an underlying tone of a "Muslim threat" headed for Europe in the last decade. This is usually referring to birthrates, using old stories about the Moors and Al-Andalus to bring up old fears and resentment for political purposes, and is cloaked in "multiculturalism" language. What I find curious about American right-wing "concern" about this is the fact that Europe is their favorite punching bag for their attacks on the left. "European, socialist, big government systems" are always some sort of underlying threat and are indicative of society, productivity, and political morality. European countries like France and Germany were implied to be wimps and cowards for either not joining in the War on Terror, or leaving in the case of Spain when they realized it was a hapless cause. If they're so politically base, socially lazy and worthless, and wimps in their convictions, what do we care? Europe is the boogeyman when they need them to be to further their domestic privatization causes, but a poor poster child for paternalism when it concerns the "evil, Muslims" abroad.

Tunisia breaking free of a despotic regime backed by France for years and Egypt breaking free of the same backed by our money are both good news scenarios for human self-determination. Creating benchmarks that not even we have measured up to in order to downplay their significance and credibility or invoking scare tactics about regions of the world that happen to border with them are laughable and should not be given more validity than a grain of salt, especially considering who is delivering the tactic.