Week+7

__//**02/03/12 **//__

**Rule 11**: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.

A real world example in which this rule was implemented is last year’s Egyptian Revolution. For a very long time, ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his tight-knit group enjoyed exaggerated amounts of riches and spoils at the expense of the Egyptian people. Being Egyptian and having lived in Egypt for a significant amount of time, I have seen the way things were and how people were living. There is an unfortunately huge portion of the Egyptian population that has lived in extreme poverty for years. Some people literally scavenge in garbage cans for food. I believe that those impoverished people made up a huge part of the revolutionary force.

The combination of time and poverty has led many people to recognize the force that is responsible for the absence of the most basic rights. For years, people were well aware of Mubarak’s riches (this includes everyone who worked for him, as well). After a good 30 years, people were finally able to openly speak up about the situation during the Revolution. What united the people of the Revolution was that they all knew who they were aiming for and that they were united in their front. I agree with the Thomas Hobbes principle that civil war and civic disunity is the worst thing that could happen to a country, and thankfully, Egyptians were very united in their stand against Mubarak and his corrupt followers. Since the source of the problem was identified and agreed upon by all, it was easy to form a stand against him and his regime. No one would have ever dreamed of seeing the day when people could openly insult Mubarak and actually bring him to his downfall, and I’m sure that included him. From the couple statements that he made during the revolution, it was obvious that he himself did not think that the people would be targeting him directly the way that they did. What pushed his downfall even more was the fact that no matter what he tried to propose to the Egyptian people, they remained united in their fight against him. I think that unity was a main factor in the success of the Egyptian Revolution.

Right now, the situation in Egypt is still questionable and change has not been made as of yet. However, the first step is the hardest to take, and the Egyptians successfully took that step. I believe that if Egyptians stand united against those in power, progress can be made.  