Sandmonkey: “Too Stupid to Govern Us”

Young Egyptian activists like Mahmoud Salem are highly unlikely to build the political parties that will come to the fore in the next—electoral—phase of the Egyptian revolution. This is not their ambition. The online activists have no interest in ruling. Rather, many will stay busy on the social-movement front—campaigning for human rights and equality, helping to institutionalize the civil society that is a prerequisite (though not a guarantor) for democratic developments. Thus, in April, the now-famous Google executive Wael Ghonim, who in June 2010 started the Facebook group “We Are All Khaled Said,” announced that he is taking a leave from Google to start an NGO to employ technology to fight poverty. Whether the online activists can make firm connections with the unions, no one can tell. But they will surely resist any attempt to impose a harsh version of Sharia law on Egypt. They are not going away.