thanks Dan, I completely resonate with your approach here,<br><br>Michel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 4:12 PM, Dan Brickley <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:danbri@danbri.org">danbri@danbri.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">On 19 February 2011 02:57, Roberto Verzola <<a href="mailto:rverzola@gn.apc.org">rverzola@gn.apc.org</a>> wrote:<br>
> I wonder what those who are knowledgeable of recent Egyptian developments<br>
> think of this analysis below...<br>
<br>
</div>I have no privileged info, but a gut reaction to this kind of material.<br>
<br>
It has a typical conspiracy theory feel to me. Bits and pieces of all<br>
kinds, fragments of truth, thrown together to give a psychologically<br>
appealing but largely unsupported revelation of a bigger, scarier,<br>
massively coordinated secret picture. The picture presented in<br>
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mohamed-elbaradei-the-man-who-would-be-president-2200155.html" target="_blank">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/mohamed-elbaradei-the-man-who-would-be-president-2200155.html</a><br>
seems more plausible than the simplistic line from Cartalucci that El<br>
Baradei really was leading the protests. �Land Destroyer's blog<br>
flipflops in <a href="http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/george-soros-egypts-new-constitution.html" target="_blank">http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/george-soros-egypts-new-constitution.html</a><br>
and nearby between dismissing the crowds as inflated versus dismissing<br>
them as gullible fools, e.g. �"It appears that while the International<br>
<div class="im">Crisis Group may be turning out the strategy, and their trustee<br>
</div>ElBaradei leading the mobs into the streets". �If this were truly a<br>
carefully orchestrated 'globalist' consiracy, perhaps we'd have since<br>
a bit more leadership on the ground, rather than the gaping lack of<br>
clear leaders that seems to have characterised the last few weeks. I<br>
find it hard to trust someone who strikes such an all-knowing tone,<br>
casually dismissive of the views and feelings of those in the street -<br>
"... hordes of duped US-backed activists".<br>
<br>
I'd be surprised if there were not a variety of players at work, but<br>
this "it's all a [communist|globalist|jewish|colonialist] plot" is the<br>
stuff of comic books. Like the best pop-sci writing, it makes the<br>
reader feel clever. And like the worst social commentary, it instills<br>
a cynicism that allows people to dismiss the real life situation of<br>
millions because they are somehow puppets of a secret hand. Having<br>
<a href="http://infowars.com" target="_blank">infowars.com</a> in the blog's sidebar is a little alarm bell, as is the<br>
implicit assumption in<br>
<a href="http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/who-are-egypts-protesters_09.html" target="_blank">http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/02/who-are-egypts-protesters_09.html</a><br>
that the presence of unions on the street somehow de-legitimises the<br>
protests...<br>
<br>
cheers,<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Dan<br>
</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
_______________________________________________<br>
P2P Foundation - Mailing list<br>
<a href="http://www.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://www.p2pfoundation.net</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">https://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
<br>Connect: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.ning.com" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.ning.com</a>; Discuss: <a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank">http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation</a><br>
<br>Updates: <a href="http://del.icio.us/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://del.icio.us/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
<br>Commons Strategies Group, <a href="http://www.commonsstrategies.org/" target="_blank">http://www.commonsstrategies.org/</a><br><br><br><br><br><br><br>