Egypt's Eschatological Moment

I was studying when former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak made what history will undoubtedly remember as his final act of defiance before his people, his last exasperated attempt to hold on to abused power. This confluence of an iron-fisted dictator’s attempt to retain his position with the overwhelming collective voice of what one can only call “Egypt” made for a deeply surreal moment as I attempted to write out my thoughts on eschatology. The next day, the Pharaoh fled and the fervor of revolution ensued. That initial euphoria is now gone and the world watches as Egypt’s future remains as unknown as the eschaton. As Libyan citizens are currently being slaughtered in their streets, it would seem that the weight of the Pauline “already-not yet” seems heavier than ever as those behind the thumb of power push it even harder upon a people whose emancipatory spirit simply won’t die. Immediately following Mubarak’s resignation, a few of the protestors were reported saying they felt that “anything seemed possible.” Indeed, the eschatological moment, when it comes, if it comes, is the very experience of the impossible, of what previously seemed unimaginable. But after the impossible comes the hard work, the unknown, the liberative drive that demands fidelity to its founding event. The question, then, is whether this drive will permeate and dismantle the entire ideological superstructure that creates rulers like Mubarak or if it acquiesces to the tired and familiar surface-level transformations that have all but diluted that onerous ‘c-word’ — change.

Blake Huggins - bhuggins@bu.edu