Abdul Doesn't Count |
7 April 2003
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The Arab Street: So What?
For the past few years, experts have been telling the governments and media audiences of the West that the talk on the "Arab Street" was this, that and the other, and attention is warranted sooner than yesterday. Recent events have proved that, if the Arab Street even exists, it doesn't matter one bit, and never has.
Public opinion in general has no effect on society unless it has some mechanism to turn emotions into actions. And to be relevant in a societal setting, those actions must be focused and coherent. As an example, elections provide a method of turning that public opinion into something focused and coherent, a political campaign.
The Arab Street, however, has no such mechanism. Democracy is alien to those states. The best Abdul Q. Public can do is demonstrate after Friday prayers. Demonstrations, of course, don't mean very much; ask an American anti-war protester how effective they've been in the land of public polling. Any honest answer is laughable.
Moreover, history is void of any instance where the Arab Street had any impact at all. While the oligarchs who run these states may fear uprisings against their rather unjust and arbitrary rule, popular revolutions don't have much of a history, let alone a successful one, in Arab society.
So as Washington tries to decide how to win hearts and minds, it may be best to try the traditional approach to dealing with mass opinion -- tell the people what to think, and most of them will follow that line quite happily.