Yesterday there was a blog on HTMLGIANT about apolitical writers. I disagreed with it. First, because The Rumpus has had regular roundups of the news from Egypt. Second, because most serious writers I know are very political, very engaged. I’ve edited three books of political fiction and never had difficulty finding contributors. In 2004 I went with a group of writers to Ohio to conduct voter registration readings and for six years I hosted literary events to raise money for progressive political causes. We called it Operation Ohio.
We didn’t raise that much money, or register that many voters, but we tried. I went into the Cleveland ghetto with Jonathan Ames, clipboards full of voter registration forms. With McSweeney’s we offered reminder phone calls on election day from your favorite authors, a personal call reminding you to vote. The problem wasn’t that authors didn’t care, more the other way around.
At the same time, the events in Egypt are just unfolding. How much do most Americans know about ElBaradei? The fear is that the Muslim Brotherhood will come to power but the people spreading that fear don’t necessarily know much about the Islamists in Egypt, and where the Muslim Brotherhood might be on that line. Not everyone who believes in Shariah supports al-Qaeda, or wants war with Israel. Still, you see educated people worrying openly about democracy taking hold, fearing the end of an authoritarian regime.
I’m afraid of any revolution. History tells us that history tells us nothing. Everything’s going fine in Lebanon (except for the pools of blood, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, in fact things were not well at all) until one day when Bashir is assassinated and then, on the death of one man, everything changes. If Syria doesn’t coordinate Bashir’s assassination there is no Hezbollah. Whatever happened to Kerensky and the Duma, when the February revolution gave way to October? And then later, when Nikolai Bukharin sent a note pleading with Stalin, Do I also have to die? How did 1789 lead to Danton, and then the Terror, and then Napoleon? If not for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, safe in London, Iran could be Marxist. And if America had been less greedy, played the right side 25 years earlier when they nationalized the oil fields…
And if not for bin-Laden, al-Qaeda never flies a plane into the twin towers. And if not for George W. Bush, America doesn’t respond by invading Iraq. History is not inevitable.
A revolution is a role of the dice. To be in favor of revolution is to be in favor of risk, to determine that anything that comes is better than what came before. The odds are good in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak was ranked fifteen in a list of the world’s worst rulers. Foreign Policy called him “a senile and paranoid autocrat whose sole preoccupation is self-perpetuation in office.”
But what I think HTMLGIANT is talking about, at least tangentially, has something to do with the internet. Why isn’t everybody writing about what’s happening in Egypt RIGHT NOW? There’s no time to get up to speed, to fasten your observations to fact. The internet has changed our expectations, illuminated our thirst for opinions, and rights to them.
I used to joke that I was to the left of the Haymarket Riots. I believe in taxing the rich but I’m willing to compromise at 50% of everything after the first two million. There’s a certain amount you can’t work for. I don’t hate rich people but I believe they are in debt to the rest of us. Corporate Personhood makes me sweat and cry at night. I believe in trying children as children. I like the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, your rights extend exactly as far as my rights. But I’ll put up with less freedom to avoid violence. I’ll vote for ability and competence over Kucinich.
I don’t know what I’m saying except that I hope the dice land softly in Egypt. Or wait, here’s what I’m saying. I was in the Hard Rock in Vegas with my publisher. He gambled too much, so much that he was able to get three large rooms for me and my friends in the hotel. He left me with $2,000 on the table. He said, Play it out. I had never shot craps with money like that. I played exactly as he played, which I don’t even remember now because craps is a sucker’s game. I always let it ride. I played the come line. My cities were burning. A crowd formed around me. I had a hot hand. Security came and watched carefully for thieves. Hookers wanted to blow on the dice. The better dressed ones were let through, the ones the hotel staff recognized. It went on for hours and when it was done I had won $15,000. This is a true story. I went back to my room and woke up my friends. I threw money on the bed and rolled around in it while they took pictures. It was about as much fun as I’d ever had. Then I gave the winnings to my publisher. He probably should have split them with me but gave me $2,000 instead. It was fine. He had paid for our room service. The point is when you’re winning at the table and you leave your chips and your chips start growing chips, and you play your winnings to their conclusion, it’s said your cities are burning, or maybe I made that up. Maybe we’re waiting for the dealer’s OK before buying in. I hope Egypt has a streak like that night and that the future of Egypt is still at the table come four in the morning, sober as a freshly minted coin, surrounded by good looking hookers, winning their own bets and also winning the bets for everyone who has decided to place money on their streak. And then, when it’s over, they’re so happy and full of love they go back to their rooms and roll around in their newfound freedoms and take pictures and post them to Facebook.
