Revolution 2.0

The Arab spring has captured the attention of the world and has probably been the defining story of this year so far.  Much has been made about technology and social media and how it has played a big part in these revolutions.  This is exemplified by the story of Wael Ghonim, the Google exec who created the facebook page memorializing Khaled Saeed, a young Egyptian man who was beaten to death by Egyptian police.  Through this page, Ghonim organized the original Egyptian protest in January, which was the starting point of the revolution.  After weeks of protesting and fighting, the Egyptian people were able to throw Mubarak out of power after 30 years of brutal rule.  Many have lauded this revolution as an example of what technology can do and even argued that this revolution was driven by technology and social media.  While mobile phones, facebook, and twitter were definitely important features of the revolution, it is an overstatement to say that they were the driving forces behind the revolution.

In the years leading up to the revolution, the cost of living in Egypt kept increasing while at the same time unemployment was extremely high.  Corruption was rampant in the government, and the people had been subject to violent repression during protests in 2008 and 2009.  All of these factors left Egypt at the breaking point of a revolution.  The people could not take much more and all of their anger boiled over following the death of Khaled Saeed.  Furthermore, the Tunisian people had only weeks before revolted and been successful, which gave people hope that they could do the same.  Facebook was used as a conduit for this anger, and helped facilitate the organization of the people, but without all of economic and social woes of the middle class and the many people in poverty, the revolution would never have been on such a large scale or been successful.  For example, in 2009 everyone became excited as the Green movement rose up in revolt in Iran and took to Twitter to show the rest of the world.  While at first it looked like they may be successful, the government was able to crush the revolt and Iran has been one of the more stable government in the Arab spring this year.  Twitter helped spread word, but it was unable to keep people steadfast in the face of repression.  The Egyptian people were able to stand up and continue because they felt like they had no other choice.  It was either revolt or die in poverty.

To go back to the example of Wael Ghonim, some may argue that he led the revolt through social media like facebook and that this was the driving force behind the revolt.  However, the real defining moment of the revolution was when Ghonim went on television after being imprisoned for 11 days and gave a moving interview that was watched by all of Egypt.  At this point it looked like the revolt might be waning and that people might not continue to stand up to brutal repression.  But, during the interview, Ghonim broke down a number of times and delivered a powerful message to the Egyptian people, which kept people strong in the face of the police.  It was Ghonim’s face and words that made him the spiritual leader of the revolt, not facebook or twitter.  In the end, the Egyptian people were able to defeat Mubarak because they believed it was the only option.  Death was better than continuing to lead the terrible lives they had because of Mubarak’s corrupt regime.  While social media and technology made the revolution easier to organize and more accessible to the rest of the world, it was not the driving force in the revolution.  The horrendous conditions that people lived in and their connections to each other forced them into action and allowed them to stay strong in the face of brutal repression.