Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for February 11, 2011

Obviously Bmzklfrpz doesn’t fear his people!

What part of “popular revolution” doesn’t Mr. President-for-Life get? ‘Cause “for life” means only while you’re still alive …

But has El Presidente overnighted his retainer yet?

I like reading the others comments because I have absolutely no idea what’s going on here.

This so parallels Mubarak. They are both deluded.

What part of “President-as-long-as-you-are-alive” don’t you get?

supersurfer, why is no one surprised?

I like reading the others comments because I have absolutely no idea what’s going on here.

uh, don’t you get world news where you live?

My first thought was of Nicolae Ceauşescu when I read this.

Jeez, even thick-skulled Mussolini tried to get out before they strung him up.

(For those who don’t remember recent history, JMD4LSU is referring to the Romanian dictator who was killed when his communist regime fell. Good call, JMD. And for anyone who doesn’t know who Mussolini was, go study 20th century history.)

(And I’m so mad at Mubarak! Again he’s caused Red Eye to be pre-empted!)

Mubarak has painted himself into a nasty corner that looks remarkably like Bmzklfrpz’s bed.

Thanks, pschearer. I often forget my age. ;-)

Time to visit the ol’ bank account in the Cayman Islands.

To quote Mel Brooks quoting King Louie:

“Your Highness! The peasants are revolting!”

“You said it! They stink on ice!”

“Mister President, have you evacuated yet?”

“No, I have to eat my prunes first.”

Ok, let’s have Havok show up fueling the revolution.

Build a man a fire, and you warm him for a night.

Set him on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.

Whose life?

I have a feeling President-For-Life Bmzklfrpz is soon to understand the expression “Term Limit.”

“President-For-Life” means he’s made his death bed, and he’s going to sleep in it all he wants.

Today’s strip, the fifth in this arc on revolution against tyrants, is the first to mention Egypt. Counting from the earliest possible date for GT’s conception of the arc (Jan. 25) to its appearance on Monday (Feb. 8) gives just two weeks.

When we comment on the political aspect of Doonesbury, we need to keep in mind this two-week distance between history (what happens) and historiography (writing about what happened). GT is neither a mere chronicler of actual events nor simply a creator of generic fantasies. He’s both at once, yet neither alone.

Doonesbury’s achievement is to juxtapose Duke and Mubarak in such a way as to give readers the illusion of immediacy and a sense that we’re taking part in “history.”

Ps. Today’s readers who are looking for history in the past (generic historiography) ought to check in to http://www.nytimes.com/ for the real thing. “Military Asserts Control,” reads one headline. “Mubarak Leaves Cairo,” says another.

The chroniclers with their generic conceptions are like Duke: they can’t keep up with the pace of actual events.

GT on the other hand does not try to chronicle events. He offers ironical prophecies instead—some of which are uncannily accurate (e.g., Duke advising this bed-ridden version of Mubarak to get out of Berzerkistan).

Mussolini was chased out twice. The first time, Hitler rescued him with a glider assault force and put him back in power, but the second time he and his girlfriend were hung upside down for a few days in the public square.

Dictators never learned that they need to help each other out in tough times.

Many dictators die in bed. At the hands of their bodyguards.

Wow, Nemy: I love the way you actually act like a real neo con and support the oppressive regime with suggestions. You are true to form. Much appreciated. I hate how so many are suddenly against this guy they’ve been propping up for years Guess they may have learned their lesson from Sadaam, but I doubt it.

No one seems to be crediting Jobs and Gates for this. Without the effective internet, most of this stuff would not be happening. Global communication makes it easier to organize a protest and less likely to be the only one showing up for the executioner’s blow. It got Obama elected so the powers that be clearly need to look at a way to use it like the Tea Party did the last time or they too will be left out.

We also neglect to point out our own freedom seen and preached on TV now available on satellite everywhere has formed the basis for a lot of this. The masses seem intent on us actually living up to our word instead of foisting puppets on them. Our preached but not followed idealism is making our face even worse on the international scene.

And it all reminds me of the old Johnathan Winters sketch about the dictator from Swaziland who wanted all manner of things and, when the interviewer asked him why we should give them replied: “Or I’ll become a communist.” Now that we do so much business with them, I doubt that has the same impact as a threat. Our “leaders’ actually fear a free society since it can’t be properly regulated or price fixed.

freeholder, I’m sure that every world dictator is glued to their monitor in anticipation of the profound advice that I’m dispensing to them. But if you take the challenge and actually think about it, the communists, Islamists, and free societies usually try to help each other out in situations like this, while plain old-fashioned dictatorships fall like dominos all on their lonesome. In any event, I’m glad to have supported your bigotry against “true-to form neo cons”, whoever the hell they are.

Nobody’s giving credit to the new media because that’s old news, except apparently to you. What will impress me is who is able to figure out what’s next. Keep your eyes on the 12-15 year olds, because whatever they’re doing now to communicate will be mainstream in 2-3 years.

Mubarak is out minutes ago. Military is in charge. This is the NYT link

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?hp

@Nemesys

The way teenagers are communicating now may well become mainstream in a few years. In the unlikely event, however, that our teenagers ever take politics as seriously as do Egypt’s young adults (and who can imagine that?), you may be sure that their communications will be monitored by Homeland Security or whoever has the job of keeping the nation safe.

Ps. (added after your response, below)

My point is that teenage enthusiasm loses its innocence when it grows up and discovers politics. Think what would happen to SP if she ran for president on the naive platform that her Alaskan political values are shared by most Americans?

Obama’s young supporters have by now, presumably, lost their innocence. (By the way, I’m talking about internal revolution, not war against an external enemy. And I reject any attempt to link our president closely to the despicable Ayers.)

palin, you’re correct, although don’t forget the 60’s when young people suddenly got very interested in politics. If we find ourselves in a war where the draft is reinstated and the kids take to the street again, it’s quite possible that Homeland Security will be sniffing carefully for words like “bomb” in text messages. Perhaps the early career of Mr. Ayers would have been cut short without loss of life had today’s technology been available during yesterday’s chaos.

Yes, Mubarak has just officially stepped down. No one knows what will happen next. Surely, it couldn’t be more chaotic than it has been of late. At any rate, it is up to the people of Egypt to elect their own leaders.

It was the young voters who allowed Obama to get into office. He got elected mostly because young people and others were not usually engaged were energized.

montessoriteacher, it can get much more chaotic. Up until now, all of the people have been united together against Mubarak, but when the empty chair is up for grabs is when we may see the real blood pouring in the streets.

Hopefully that will not happen, but much depends upon what the army does. The people may not get a chance to elect anything at all.

Obama was elected for many reasons. For his sake, it had best not be primarily as a result of young people being energized, because I doubt that same level of energy will be available to him from them the next time around.

There’s Hella ‘Stans over there. It’s hard to tell which one Bmz…’s from. He looks a little Turkimeni to me. What ever happen to Dagestan?

I see where the Wingnuts’ Hootnany is goin’ on. Just wonderin’ what the ”Progressive Conservative Caucus” will put in the platform?

Nemesys,,, I must agree. Everyone will want a piece of the pie. It may be a repeat of how Mubarak gained power himself.

@Justice22

When you talk as Nemesys does about grabbing a piece of the pie, you’re denying (as he does) the real nature of a revolution and assuming that Egypt is merely undergoing another power shift.

Power shifts are predictable because they all follow the same pattern, with one faction wresting the “pie” from another. Nothing changes except the name of the tryant; an army council replaces Mubarak.

By contrast, revolutions destroy the pie altogether and replace it with a constitution—or a republic—shared by a sovereign people.

I have no doubt of Nemesys’s republican sympathies, but his anxieties affect his political vision and make him fear tyranny where it no longer exists. Does he think these Egyptian rebels are fools?

uh oh! … Life might be coming to an end for the president of Berzerkistan.

palin, I admit anxieties, but I (and you) know of many classic examples in history where one monarch or dictator was replaced by another as the result of a people’s revolution.

Revolutions in Russia, China, France, Germany, Iran, and scores of South American and African nations have all ended up worse off than they began after popular sentiment resulted in tossing out a despot, and that after significant bloodshed in most of them. There have been exceptions, but it’s hardly a rule.

My lens is historical, not political. I wish I shared your smug confidences of a rosy future, but concience dictates that I cannot.

@Nemesys

“History is the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of states, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized. The question, then, is to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”—Hegel, Philosophy of History (1837)

The Egyptians’ answer to Hegel’s question, I expect, would be “the cause of freedom.” The smugness comes from us when we selectively elevate our American history by bragging about our Revolution while ignoring dismal experiences like our Civil War.

I’m sure any freed slave would have elevated that Civil War over their masters’ triumphant Revolution four score and seven years earlier. So too should you and I elevate it, if we really believe that bloodshed is the price of freedom.

Trudeau and his imaginary liberal “good-guy” world

Thanks, > Palindrome – you got it right and well said, too.

GT follows the Damon Runyon* philosophy: “The race does not always go to the swiftest or the fight to the strongest. But that’s the way to bet.” *

To look at a revolution gone awry just look 90 miles South of Key West. Cuba had a dandy.