By definition, when you are defending yourself, it is not a fight you have initiated; you do not get to determine how the fight will be fought.
When you are being attacked, you do not have the privilege of time and deliberation; you have to base your response upon the nature of the attack itself. This is one of the things I dislike about many martial arts disciplines and self-defense training techniques. They teach you how to respond if the attacker approaches you in a specific way, and if he attacks you in any other way, you are unprepared. Well, you don’t get to tell someone who is thrusting a knife at you, “please use the other hand, and slash the knife downwards instead of upwards, because that is what I am trained to defend against.”
For years now, and especially after the IMF loan was approved, I have been told by a number of people that the “nature” of Egyptians is such that they cannot resist the corporate occupation in the manner I recommend. Well, I have nothing to do with that. I understand the argument. “You should tailor strategies to fit what the people are actually capable of doing”. But, you see, this is not a game. Your attackers attack according to their ability, not yours. It is your job to increase your capability; and if not, then of course, you will be defeated. That is real life.
I have been writing to warn about the nature of the threat Egypt faced and faces, and to identify the most practical strategies for confronting that threat. I have nothing to do with contemplating the “nature” of 90 million people; “this is the threat, this is the best way to resist that threat, and these are the consequences you will face if you do not resist it”…that is what concerns me. And I do not believe for a moment that the strategies I advocate are beyond the people’s real capabilities.
Perhaps more suffering is required before the situation is understood. When Egyptians who are today employed professionals are scavenging through rubbish bins for food in a couple years, maybe then the full ramifications of the IMF conquest will crystallize for them. But I do not blame this on their “nature”; responsibility lies with those fraudulent “leaders” who have insisted upon fallacious ideas and futile strategies for the sake of their own ambitions; who have exploited and manipulated the religious sentiments of the people to divert them away from the real issues and dangers they face; those “leaders” who have refused to use their platforms to raise awareness about the IMF loan, about neoliberalism, or to suggest any practical policies or educate their followers about any substantive issues at all.
Imagine a boxer who is about to face an opponent in the ring, and all his coach tells him is “he hates you because of what you believe” but he does not explain the opponent’s tactics nor teach how to defend against them, nor tell him how to strike back. Such a coach is utterly useless, and deserves to be dismissed.