Revolution, Or The Repetition Of The Same?

Abstract

As the blossoms announcing the 'Arab Spring' have begun to wither, giving way to the uncomfortable summer of constitutional reform, it is time to cast a more critical gaze on the fundamental nature of 'regime' and the 'change' so feverishly desired. The present article finds the failure of significant reform in Tunisia and Egypt to be a symptom of the 'compulsion to repeat.' Yet, instead of locating the nexus of this compulsion in the instincts, pace Freud, the present article finds it in an ideology of domination, which equates regime with dictators, and leaves the ontological roots of oppression-- crassly stratified wealth-- unscathed.