the eros effect and the revolution in egypt

[bcbm]

By Teodros Kiros


The transformation of self-interest into species-interest is the essential dimension of the Eros effect. An example of this type of activity occurred in May 1968 in France, specifically during a march in protest of the expulsion from France of Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a German-born Jew who was one of the leaders of the student revolt, which sparked the strike by ten million workers. The crowd as a whole–including a prominent contingent of Arabs–began chanting: "We are all German Jews." In this situation, an intuitive process of identification occurred in which individual and group self-interest were transcended as the universalized interest of the species emerged. It was not only the case that a new norm was created: Within a matter of days, the entire value system and the institutions of France were transformed in the everyday lives of millions of people. Patriotic nationalism was swept aside by internationalism, and as self-managed factories, universities, and cities suddenly appeared, France was suddenly on the brink of revolution.


So wrote George Katsiaficas, the theorist on the Eros Effect.


continued:
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/?p=34187

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Norman Brown's "Live Against Death" about "polymorphous pervesity", which builds on Marx's Thesis on Feurbach I think can be pertinent here. Humankind has an ongoing, "sensous relationship" with the material world. This can be expressed in sexuality but there many other ways of expressing this as well.

Norman Brown himself wrote a book on Islamic mysticism, the "imaginal realm" which he saw a possible expression of human liberation. I wonder to what extend Sufi brotherhoods had a role in organizing the Egyptian protests. From bits and pieces I've seen on CNN I saw protesters doing Sufi type dances in Tharir Square.