Much of the reporting on Egypt lately seems to me to have an aura of fantasy about it. No matter what happens, the media seems to cling to the narrative that the latest catastrophe -- sexual assaults of journalists, persecution of Christians, violence in the streets, clashes between protestors and the military -- is just a speed bump on the path of the Arab Spring's road to democracy.
Oh, yes, elections are coming right up! As if that makes a difference. As Jonah Goldberg has been fond of noting, there is no end to the number of repressive tyrannical regimes that hold elections with great regularity.
There will be no real freedom in Egypt because the people of Egypt don't understand or respect the Western concepts of individual rights and freedom. End of story. I feel like I'm reading letters from children when I see opinion pieces and news reports that assume differently.
What's worse than Egyptians not understanding the foundations of Western political philosophy, is that it is very clear that most of the people in the Western media don't understand them, either.
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