The past is a prelude

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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2012/January/opinion_January12.xml&section=opinion

The past is a prelude

Mahir Ali (Reflection)

4 January 2012

Queried about the significance of the French Revolution of 1789, Chinese premier Zhou Enlai famously responded nearly two centuries after the event: “It’s too soon to tell.” By that token, none of us will be privy to the world-historical significance of the events of 2011.

Not surprisingly, analogies have been made with the student revolts of 1968, when events in Paris set off a chain reaction that extended far beyond European borders as far as Mexico and Pakistan, and with the events of 1989, when perestroika-inspired uprisings brought down communist regimes across Eastern Europe, paving the way for the demise of the Soviet Union itself two years later. snip

Following the experience of 2008, when the American electorate voted overwhelmingly for change and obtained not much of it, it would perhaps been unwise to make too much of the discretely bizarre Republican aspirants to Barack Obama’s White House throne. Yet, for all the disappointments he has spawned, were Obama to be toppled in November, the character who replaces him would inevitably provide even more cause for concern.

Perhaps above all, it remains to be seen whether anything comes of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the clones it has spawned, whose disenchantment with the established capitalist order cannot be ignored. Yet, whatever may lie ahead, Tunis and Tahrir Square are likelier to survive as symbols of what made 2011 so significant and models for what may lie ahead.