Political action, part 2

I'm irritated this morning because I've had to postpone an exam that I'd scheduled for Sunday. And for once, it's not groveling students, academic red tape, or incompetency on my part that's causing the hassle.

It's democracy.

Last month Egypt was rocked by a series of protests and confrontations between citizens and military police (check out my friend's blog for a synopsis, pictures, and links). I wrote a little in this blog about the strike, but the truth is, I basically missed the whole thing. I was out of town.

I was relaxing on a friend's balcony a couple of days ago when he brought up the subject of another set of planned protests. And this morning I awoke to a few emails from students, asking to have the exam postponed to Tuesday.

"Personal safety?" I grumbled to myself over coffee. "Of course they'd play the personal safety card, lazy little slackers. Why, when I was their age, I was walking past protests in New York City!"

But no one was shooting. Or gassing. Or arresting and torturing.

I like to thinking that I'm watching the birth of a democratic consciousness here. Problem is, the baby's breech - and the doctor's trying to shove it back where it came from.

This country's in serious trouble. There's a lot that's great about it, don't get me wrong. But the dollar's circling the bowl, there's a global food shortage, many wages haven't changed in 20 years, and Egypt's poverty and illiteracy rates are staggering.

I salute this initiative by the Egyptian people - powered, though it is, by FaceBook. This vitality and motivation is not something I'd come to expect of Egyptians. And really, there's no comparison between this political action and the bored-yuppy-and-celebrity expression that, in my view, seems to underpin a lot of the American political expression I've witnessed.

When Egyptians strike, they're facing the bullets, the beatings, the intimidation, the arrests directly. Assuming they make it home, they're heading right back into the conditions that drove them into the streets in the first place. (We can debate later, if you like, the sufferings of the typical AUC student's sociopolitical stratum in this climate.)

After Princetonians finish assuaging their political consciences, they park the SUV in the Whole Foods for half an hour to pick up their seven dollar, gluten-free, cage-free, european artisanal bread loaf for dinner.

I'm painting with broad strokes here, but can you see a difference? Maybe I'm comparing apples and oranges here. Maybe there is no comparison with American politics.

Maybe Americans should stop spending and bickering and be grateful for what we have.