The Ultimatum of Reality

It usually is not that much of a contradiction when you feel good at day, but comes the night you feel disheartened and vice-versa. Being moody is completely normal yet irritating. Intriguing, yet repulsive.

There is not any particular reason as to pinpoint why, how or when this fluctuation strikes you. It just does. And when it does, I often tend to sulk into it. I give it unwordly reasons to legitimize its existence in me. Again the actual mood change reasons are still unknown. But the fact that it lives in me can mean two things. Either I am a pessimist and I just prefer to live in solemnity and loneliness, or I just do not have the power to fight it off, which technically drives me to the same conclusion. Reality.

It does not ring the bell or knock the door. It does not call before coming or whatsapp you to meet it. It practically has the key to your bathroom door. It literally does. You cannot stop it from welcoming you in its embrace. You cannot tell it to not to speak to you again. It is a permanent ghost inside us all. It just times its appearance to you. SURPRISE.

We all love surprises in one way or another. Birthdays, celebrations, parties, gifts, etc,.. But when reality surprises you with the loss of someone close. Or a person you care about does not care back anymore. The fact that you have to be at times diplomatic in your behaviour, yet from the inside you are on fire. Getting bad marks on your exams. Not tolerating even your own parents. You just cannot escape its claws. You just cannot design your own reality. Even if you do, it will find its way back to you.

So imagine if you are just laying in bed, reading a book, getting comfy and being really relaxed and enjoying the moment. Not thinking of what is going to happen next. Not realizing that something bad might happen to you or anybody within the vicinity. The agony of it that you do not perceive it before it occurs. You cannot expect what is going to take place next.

This is not a bout to argue in existentialist themes. And this is definetely not an attempt to channel through my inner reclusive pessimist. You cannot control it. You can sleep one night happy and  be excitingly overwhelmed by something. The next day you just do not feel like getting out of bed. You keep asking yourself why is that, but you get no answer back. You can however try to shake it off. Call a friend, read a book, watch your favorite sitcom, listen to music, or just be with someone you love or appreciate his/her company. Although in general it has a short-term effect, results may vary.

Anyways, I am not the kind of man who belittles the power of happiness. I am not the one who discourages people around me, I am in fact the opposite. At least I like to think that way. What drove me to write this in the first place was that if I had something that might affect me negatively, I write it down. What made me share it, was that even if any of you felt like that somehow, and I am sure you did, do not ignore it. Do not over-analyze it though. You just have to acknowledge the fact that reality can bite. But it is not posionous. It is in the end liveable.

Polarized over Kofta

This post was not written by me. It was written by Mohamed Magdy Fahmy, a friend and occasionally a brother. It is his thoughts and writing. I owe him that much. 

I’m pretty sure that most people reading this post have watched, read or at the very least heard about the great achievement that our military has accomplished (a cure for AIDS, HCV, Diabetes, Cancer and every virus known to humanity for that matter). Of course there were different reactions to this announcement; skepticism, sarcasm, outrage and some people bought it and believed it to be true.The reason for the controversy is mainly the way the “epic” discovery was presented “soba3 kofta”, “kan 3andak AIDS w ra7” and the mere fact that they stated that the device can cure anything.  But at this point we must ask ourselves a few important questions:  How come a very large segment of Egyptians (who are well educated) actually believed this garbage and even went all the way to defend it? Why did the military release such an absurd announcement that was full of scientific errors, misinformation and lack of any supporting evidence that a person like myself who has only studied Biology at high school was able to spot out easily?

Let’s analyze the people that are defending this device or at the very least believe it to be true, but let’s exclude illiterate people and people who suffer from any diseases that the so called doctors claimed can be cured by the device. I pity these people the most because they “want” to believe and currently their dreams are being manipulated. But what about the educated segment, there is an obvious polarization in stances. The educated people who are defending the device are needless to say pro-Military, pro-Sisi for President and as we recently discovered pro-any thing the military throws at us. These people refused to consider the whole issue from an analytical point of view and decided that the military knows all. The military is saying the truth and even if they weren’t “ya 3m msh moshkela” that was a quote by a person that I managed to convince that the whole thing was bogus after a few days of endless arguments. 

This ladies and gentlemen is a great sign of a Polarized Egypt in the making and it’s not about the Muslim Brotherhood vs. The Military. It’s going to be “You are either with us or against us” and being with us means that you will cheer, clap for and praise anything we do whatever it is even if it is “Treating AIDS by turning it into Kofta” and you will not under any circumstances question anything we do. Now consider this for a moment; if we had a polarization in opinions among the educated and elites in society on something as absurd as “C-Fast, I-Fast and Complete Cure” which was obviously complete garbage from the way it was presented not to mention all the scientific bullshit it had. What do you think will happen when the military officials or the regime decides to pass a controversial law, forge the elections...etc. 

We’ll have the same situation we have right now, people arguing with each other and that controversy is exactly what the regime aims for: Controversy; it’s the perfect solution, we already have an illiterate base that doesn’t question anything, all we need to do is to polarize the educated people and push them to argue with each other (balance out each other) and we’ll just keep running things the way we want. This theory has been put to test and has succeeded the fact that we had a controversy over “Soba3 Kofta AIDS” means they have succeeded. 

What we are witnessing now is a phenomenon known as “Perceptual Screen” and it is a very common phenomenon in US political behavior where the perceptual screen acts as glasses that a citizen wears that makes him look at any issue from the eyes of his party (in our case the military), this screen makes the person take in distorted and irrational positions, stances and decisions without any analysis or reviewing of facts. Sounds familiar? Today we have many people that support anything the military does under the argument  that they saved us, they know what’s best for us...etc. Although a lot of these people stood against the same issues in the time of the MB and “Bassem Youssef” is the most obvious example of that. This perceptual screen will inevitably lead to a disaster in any upcoming elections in the future and this time the damage will be beyond repair.

My advice is to stop arguing with these people, you need to let them find the truth on their own. Tell them to use the internet for something useful for a change, to look, explore and decide on their own. Arguing with them will only make them more extreme, more radical and more reliant on the perceptual screen. If we don’t help these people analyze in an unbiased way, then don’t come complaining about all the bad conditions we are suffering and how the revolution has failed. These people need to realize that, and you need to help them.