This Week in Brief

A Reflection

The big news in the world this week is the revolution in Egypt. That has to be noted, it strikes me as a huge deal. Mubarak held out for almost three weeks, until finally the military told him it was over, and he resigned. Now the army is in charge of the country, but it’s not billed as a military takeover but an interim care-taker sort of arrangement until the institutions can be put into place for a new constitution and a new, freely elected government. It sounds a little dicey to me, for the military is certainly part of the old regime and very dependent on U.S. military aid, so what kind of a democracy will come out of that? But the Egyptians trust the military to do right by them, which so far it has—by not pulling the trigger on the demonstrators. You have to wonder what was going on behind the scenes between the generals and Mubarak. I suspect it’s not as clean as it appears. But for the moment it’s amazing. One of the oldest, traditionally autocratic and brutally repressive civilizations in western history has fallen from the inside out in a popular uprising. Is this the Aquarian Age or what?

Of course, it all started in America in 1775. That’s a thrilling realization in itself. In a certain way, it all started here in Hampton Roads. Well, not exactly, of course. But Virginia was certainly one of the vital centers of this new energy which transfers institutional authority from a king to the individual, from outside to inside of oneself. Used to be the best you could hope for was a wise king. Now the best hope is in a wise majority. It’s still touch and go! What’s needed to feed a successful democratic system is a good, rounded education for everyone, a love of learning. Ronald Reagan became the public face of the movement to shut down free education, beginning in California. It’s amazing how he is celebrated, practically canonized, when he is the one who officially established the movement to dumb down America and turn us into subjects rather than citizens. Thanks, Ronny.