This Is My Rifle: The Egyptian Revolution Has Been (Poorly) Televised

Photo Credit: Ed Ou for the New York Times

It all happened in 8 days. One of the most significant events to occur in recent world history took exactly one week and one day to unfold. What I’m referring to is the uprising of the people in North Africa, which will result in the eventual collapse of President Mubarak’s 30-year reign over Egypt.

It started in Tunisia, spread to Algeria and Yemen and then exploded in Cairo. Thousands of people took to the streets to demand a change. These people, who have spent the past 30 years under a corrupt and even sometimes violent regime, came together and openly defied a dictator who until 8 days ago ruled his country through fear and intimidation. While at present time President Mubarak hasn’t stepped down from his post as Egypt’s leader, it’s very obvious that whether he continues on for the next 7 months as the head of the country or not, his reign is indefinitely over.

I’ve never cared too much for politics and this article isn’t about the positive or negative aspects of Mubarak’s government. I’m sure people on both sides have valid points and I’m not the right person to create the argument. But the extreme poverty, corruption and ridiculously high level of unemployment in the Middle East speaks for itself. And sooner or later, if you push the people far enough, a revolution will occur.

That’s what I want to talk about here today; the idea of a revolution.

We’ve heard the word repeated many times in music, on t-shirts, in movies, by radical suburban college students and pretentious spoken word artists but I’ve always questioned these people’s knowledge of what a revolution actually is. In my personal opinion, it always felt like these people were unaware of what they were promoting and were more or less just frustrated kids who got beat up a lot in high school. No, being a revolutionary is not a fashion statement or a way to meet girls, it’s an unmovable devotion to complete and total change. It’s the desire to destroy the powers that be and start again from scratch. It’s a person’s willingness to lay their life down in the pursuit of freedom.

What’s happening in Egypt is a true revolution.

Of course, the Western media has been on 24 hour Egypt watch. While I can absolutely guarantee that the conservative Christian media outlets (Bill, Glenn and Sean I’m looking at you) will somehow figure out a way to spin this and make it a story about anti-American Muslim nutjobs taking over the Middle East and planning on storming America with suicide bombers, I’m more disappointed in the liberal media’s approach. Before I go into my usual “I hate the media” rant (trust me, I’m well aware of how often I do that) I’m going to first give credit where it’s due. CNN has been very fair in how they’ve portrayed the Egyptian people and have provided an intimate look into their perspective. Also, I have a new appreciation for Anderson Cooper as his “straight to the point” journalistic style has complimented this event perfectly. But what has troubled me about their coverage of the developing situation is their choice of imagery and language in describing it.

Until today the protests were generally peaceful and non-violent. But still, words like “chaos”, “anarchy” and “crisis” have been used repeatedly in relation to the protests, creating the idea that this is an unruly group demanding something unreasonable when this is a country of oppressed people who are merely looking for simple things that we take for granted like clean water, food and basic civil liberties. The word “revolution” has been used loosely but has been carefully placed next to the previous set of words to downplay the importance of what is actually happening. It’s almost a subliminal way of telling the Western public, “corruption good, revolution bad”.

As I write this, pro-Mubarak supporters have stormed the protests and the streets of Cairo have now erupted in violence. Every 30 seconds the reporters on CNN are adamant in reminding the Western population of just how many people have been injured and how many are dead. They have made no effort to explain why this happening and they have barely provided any back-story to the situation. Instead, they just keep playing the same violent images over and over again.



The message that’s being sent is loud and clear. Demand freedom and face the penalty of injury or even death. Don’t stand for anything because if you do you will fail. Continue along with the program and don’t ask questions, things are the way they are and we are powerless against it.

I’m going to stop this article right here because I want you, the reader, to take the next 10 minutes and think about what you’re going to do when our time comes. Please believe me when I tell you, things like The Patriot Act are just the beginning of a plan to put us under the same oppressive circumstances that the people of Egypt are fighting against. And so when we get pushed into a corner, which side will you be on? We’ve all at one point in time or another pumped our fist and said, “power to the people”, but how far are you willing to go to truly put that power back into the people? Are you ready for a revolution or are you only willing to partake if it’s convenient? I urge you to take these things into consideration because in the coming years you will have to make that decision.

Egypt is just the beginning of something a lot bigger.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)