My first several years in prison were spent trying to organize an escape, and to convince others to participate in this effort. We were all on Death Row, so, in my thinking, what on earth did any of us have to lose if we tried? And, obviously, we had not only our freedom to gain, but our very lives.
When I saw the guards, I saw men like myself; except that they were generally not as physically fit, not well-trained, and lazy. I knew I could defeat any single one of them in a fight, and I knew I could outrun them. When I saw the prison doors at different parts along the corridors, I saw nothing but a puzzle of timing; when and how to ensure that all these doors could be open and passed at the same time. But when other prisoners saw the guards, they only saw the uniforms; they saw the power of the state. When they saw the doors, they saw restrictions. They saw only impossibility.
Through my interactions with them I learned a lot. There were men who said that they would join me in an escape if I could smuggle in weapons for them, or if I could make sure that someone was waiting outside to give us guns as soon as we got through the gate. They would engage in fantasies about helicopters and hand grenades being available, or speed boats. They would suggest outlandish things like somehow getting the keys to a police bus and ramming it through the main gate. But, you see, the actual logistics of escape were quite straightforward: run down the corridor, knocking down guards along the way, rush through the main office, and out to the gate, and once there, knockout the guard, take the key, and leave the prison compound. Really very simple. But it would require both physical and psychological confidence and strength. And this is where they were lacking; even to the extent that they could not dare to fight for their own lives.
I realized that even if I arranged a helicopter, armed each of them with a Kalashnikov and a grenade, and offered to literally carry them out the door, none of them would be ready to go. The demands for weapons and the fantasies were all just excuses to avoid taking action; they were all nothing more than a type of camouflage to hide their cowardice. Because the actual work required to escape was very little.
I often feel like I am reliving this process regarding Egypt.
There are many in Egypt today, and many who promote fantasies about how to change the situation in Egypt, who are exactly like these people. They would rather hide their inaction by talking about the dramatic action they pretend they will take when the circumstances allow, instead of doing now what they actually can do, and what will actually work. But even if you give them an army, they would not make a move.