How to cure a hangover:

An Angry Arab's New Definition of "Democracy"

I'm fascinated by this Angry Arab blog. It provides a wealth of insights into the paradoxical mind of a Berkeley professor who describes himself as "a former Marxist-Leninist, now an anarchist", a feminist, and an "atheist secularist".

Reading his "news service" (as valuable a window into the inscrutable mass psychology of the Arab Street as MEMRI is), one can only marvel at the boldness and unselfconsciousness of AA's cognitive dissonance. He is the embodiment of Orwellian doublethink, that is, the act of simultaneously accepting as correct two mutually contradictory beliefs.

For an intellectual who defines himself as an anarchist, he seems to cheer what he diagnoses as the resurgence of Pan-Arabism and totalitarian, genocidal Arab Islamic ideology.

Here is an example:

In this blogpost he jeers at the NYT pundits who misunderstand what drives the Egyptian revolution:

"What do the Egyptians want, according to the New York Times?

Well, look at this headline: "Egyptians Say Military Discourages an Open Economy." Yes, the thing that Egyptians really have fought for is to make the economy more "open" and to invite more MNCs and to encourage the rise of more corrupt billionaires in the country. That was the goal of the Egyptian uprising, yeah"

Later on he provides a few possible answers as to what he thinks, with obvious approval, motivates the mass uprisings:

"Zionists who are freaking out, may freak out even more

For those who say that there are no foreign policy goals for Egyptian protesters, you need to watch this. In it, Egyptians (more than 2 million today) in Tahrir Square chant: "To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions." (Yes, it rhymes in Arabic) عالقدس رايحين, شهداء بالملايين (thanks Farah)"


"Arab nationalism

Fouad Ajami, and other Zionists who have had declared that Arab nationalism is long dead, need to explain this: how events in one Arab country are influencing another? How slogans chanted in Tunisia are also chanted in Egypt and Bahrain?"

So, the secular anarchist from Berkeley applauds and can hardly contain his exuberance as he perceives an ostensibly "democratic" movement expressing itself in excessive nationalism and religious fanaticism.

Anyone who as yet has not figured out the true meaning of the Egyptian "democratic revolution" ought to visit AA's blog. I don't know. Is there a really effective toddy for the morning-after hangover?