#1. No One Is Neutral -- Even if They Want to Be
You've probably sat through your fair share of "debates" between tipsy relatives on opposite sides of the political spectrum over Thanksgiving dinner. Now imagine an equally polarizing debate taking place in the middle of an armed revolution consisting of Islamic extremists and pro-military secularists, and you wind up in a situation where even having a "moderate" viewpoint can get you fucking stabbed for failing to sufficiently support one side or the other.
As we mentioned, after President Mubarak was given the boot and the country languished without an official president for a full year, the recently jail-sprung Morsi was elected into what would turn out to be a very short-lived presidency. During that time, Jim was teaching English to children ages 6 to 11, which traditionally is an age group that pays the exact same amount of attention to national politics as they do to the rules of etiquette governing the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese's.
However, kids are pretty good at parroting whatever politically charged vitriol comes out of their parents' mouths, regardless of whether or not they really understand what they're saying. And, when mom and dad come home bloody because of political rhetoric, or don't come home at all, you'd better believe those kids are going to repeat that shit.
"I was teaching English, and I taught them the word 'thief' at one point, and this 11-year-old says, 'Oh the Muslim Brotherhood, they're thieves,'" Jim said. As if this were part of the lesson plan and the kid was just helpfully reminding him that he'd skipped over it. "You couldn't go through a day without speaking about politics. You'd introduce yourself to someone, and they would almost always ask, 'What do you think about Morsi? What do you think about the Muslim Brotherhood?'"
And, keep in mind, you'd better be very goddamned careful about how you answer a question like that in a country where a judge recently sentenced 720 people to death for being alleged Muslim Brotherhood supporters after what could just barely be called a trial. Just in the last year, the new government has killed more than 1,400 people and thrown another 16,000 in jail. Most of whom were supporters of Morsi -- the last guy who got thrown out -- who want him back in. If that happens, there'll be a whole different list of arrest warrants, for the other side.
Read more:
http://www.cracked.com/article_2142...ide-real-world-dystopia_p2.html#ixzz3DaVFe5aA