The issue with the Arab Spring, together with the Occupy movement and the Brazilian protestors, is that the millions of people who have taken to the streets for one reason or another collectively lack an organised leadership or any representatives.
Spain’s Indignados can be added to the list as well, especially as the name of their movement is so indicative of the problem that plagues the massive, popular, spontaneous protest phenomena of the recent years.
The reason why the protests never achieve anything is not that a Great Leader is lacking. It is that the protesters unite around the idea of a vague discomfort with what is going on and have absolutely no clue what specific kind of change they want to take place. No matter how many people show up and how passionate they get, protesting against greed, poverty, or corruption in politics is incapable of producing results.
As my favorite poster of the Indignados said, “Indignation is not enough.” Many of us have experienced those proverbial fights between lovers where people yell and scream at each other only to fall into a passionate embrace after venting their grievances.
These protests are very similar to such fights. Protesters release the tension through the carnavalesque but ultimately meaningless activities and are then ready to hand themselves over to the system they ranted against with an even greater abandon.
Clarissa's Blog 
“Les manifs sont par essence inutiles, surtout lorsqu’elles sont pacifiques, planifiées, connues longtemps à l’avance, sages et encadrées par un service d’ordre (qui ne sont rien d’autre que des flics — contestataires mais flics quand même, cela dit en passant. J’ai déjà eu maille à partir avec le service d’ordre de la CSN et laissez-moi vous dire que je choisirais les flics du SPM n’importe quand). Les manifs sont assimilables à des pétitions sans papier à signer, des pétitions où les participants n’ont pas à s’identifier (et encore, la police est bien contente de compléter ses dossiers lors de tels événements).
Manifester, c’est pétitionner le pouvoir et c’est entrer en dialogue avec lui. Et lorsqu’on dialogue avec un pouvoir (comme lorsqu’on dialogue avec un individu), on en reconnaît la légitimité. Voilà pourquoi manifester « calmement et avec ordre » est un droit démocratique: tout simplement parce que manifester ne change absolument rien — même si on peut obtenir des ajustements cosmétiques, si on a beaucoup de chance.”
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These protesters don’t even petition the authorities. They have nothing they want to ask of the authorities. Rather, they seem to petition God or the universe or fate. And we all know how useful that is. As for the changes they obtain, time and again those changes are TO THE WORSE. Spain, Russia, Egypt, US – protests in all these countries have culminated in more repressive, more conservative regimes.
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In our Printemps Étudiant, protestors asked something to the the governement.
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The students got exactly what they wanted, didn’t they?
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goverment.
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government
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What about Egypt?
Egypt’s military has moved against the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood a day after deposing President Mohammed Morsi. Mr Morsi is being detained, as well as senior figures in the Islamist group of which he is a member. Hundreds more are being sought.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23189180
I am unsure what it will mean in practice. Military in power instead of religious laws and President in power? Do you understand what’s going on?
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It seems like the whole thing is between the religious fanatics and the military at this point. Both options are quite sucky.
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Baby steps, most change comes with, Baby steps. 🙂
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It’s all wrapped up in the grotesque stupidity of identity politics, too. Like I told you, after the first Egyptian revolution, a woman appeared on TV to say that it was Egyptian self-determination and so long as the Egyptian electorate made up their own minds who they’d like in power, the Islamic Brotherhood would be quite okay. It’s like with feminism today: So long as I choose my own oppression and you butt out, any kind of oppression will be fine. I simply have to choose it.
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EXACTLY!!!!
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