Re: Egypt's Euphoria

'millions of happy breasts?'

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |

*“I am not responsible for actions of the imaginary version of me you have
inside your head.”
Attributed to Teresa Nielsen Hayden*


On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Lance McLain <lance-X3DuywwxauBWk0Htik3J/[email protected]> wrote:

> http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/02/day_joy
>
> Egypt's euphoria
>
>
>
>
> Feb 11th 2011, 19:42 by W.W. | IOWA CITY
>
>    -
>    -
>
> JUBILATION is catching. It is impossible, for me at least, to watch the
> crowds in Egypt, overjoyed at Hosni Mubarak's hotly-desired resignation,
> with dry eyes and an unclenched throat. The best explanation I have heard
> today for the mass euphoria rippling through Egypt came earlier this morning
> when one Al Jazeera reporter, choking back sobs, described the rise of
> Egypt's people and the fall of Egypt's dictator as "everything I've ever
> hoped for". Everything! Another correspondent, reporting from Alexandria,
> described Egypt's collective elation as the release of 30 years of
> bottled-up emotion. He said he had seen birth, that he had seen marriage,
> but he had never seen happiness like this, and it is everywhere. This is
> sublimely powerful stuff. It may be the *most* powerful stuff.
>
> I admit that I am more than a little tempted to rain on the parade and note
> that Mr Mubarak's departure guarantees nothing and that it is not
> unreasonable to fear a turn for the worse. There's a tiny, stability-loving
> Burke on my shoulder, and I'm afraid he's no devil. All the same, for now
> I'm not listening. Well, I did listen a little, but I've heard enough. It is
> partly due to my Burkean worries that I feel the pessimist in me should just
> stuff it for now. Whether or not Egypt flowers into a model democracy,
> whether or not Egyptians tomorrow live more freely than Egyptians today,
> today they threw off a tyrant. The surge of overwhelming bliss that has
> overtaken Egyptians is the rare beautitude of democratic will. The hot blush
> of liberation, a dazzled sense of infinite possibility swelling millions of
> happy breasts is a precious thing of terrible, unfathomable beauty, and it
> won't come to these people again. Whatever the future may hold, this is the
> happiest many people will ever feel. This is the best day of some peoples'
> lives. The tiny Dionysian anarchist on my other shoulder is no angel, but I
> cannot deny that there is something holy in this feeling, that it is one of
> few human experiences that justifies life—that satisfies, however briefly,
> our desperate craving for more intensity, for more meaning, for more *life
> * from life. Whatever the future holds, there will be disappointment, at
> best. But there is always disappointment. Today, there is joy.
>
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