If the main witness, when asked if they “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” replies with “no,” what happens then?
I think, sometimes. I also sometimes wonder, or try to dig deeper into topics. It’s only natural, supposedly. For now, I’m thinking that there are several things in life that most of us want to know the simple and truthful answer to. It isn’t too much to ask, really. What something is, how or why it happened; you know, just out of curiosity. Sometimes while we’re looking for those answers, we find several different possible ones for the same question. Confusion alert! Which one should we believe? Why isn't it like simple mathematics? 2+2=4. You can't tell me some people believe the correct answer is 7, and others think it's 4. I’ll then get to sit and ponder, and my head will start coming up with potential conspiracies why I should believe it's 7 (They're subliminally trying to get me to like Christiano Ronaldo. Nice try.) and then I'm lost and confused again. If I have tolerance for others' opinions – rare thing these days – we’ll agree to disagree. If I don’t, I'll spend my whole life fighting with the flies of my face (quite literal translation, yes) while trying to convince others of the best answer that I see fit.
Now, guess what I'm going to relate this to. Go on. Exactly, the revolution. Hold on; just bear with me, please. I think this is Egypt’s status right now: we're stuck in 'LOST'. Yes, that TV series with the plane that crashed on the island and all the random events with absolutely (that’s an overstatement) no explanations of how they occurred or who on good old Earth caused them. I stopped watching that show after season 3. I couldn't take (I apologize in advance to the fans) the unnecessary-turned-ridiculous mysteries.
There were trees that start moving suddenly, simultaneously. There was the black smoke monster with mechanical sounds! There were killings, 'Others', underground prisons, labs, cages, dead people’s ghosts, healings, sickness, whispers and a lot more I'm glad I can't recall. In Egypt, we’re witnessing killings, kidnappings, tortures, frequent car thefts, clashes, clean-ups, beneficial initiatives, optimism, then pessimism, fits of angst and anxiety, physical fits caused by teargas, and a lot more, that of course I can recall.
Well, some people decided to stop watching the Egyptian version of 'LOST' and immigrated or stayed put but shut off media completely. I'm not judging; I can't blame or support them. For those of us who are here, though, who are watching, who are waiting, (I'm starting to sound like Optimus Prime) we have it differently. We're suffering from what-the-heck-is-going-on syndrome, following the news, switching back and forth between optimism and pessimism. Luckily, some things got explained in 'LOST' and the awaiting audience was finally given some 'rational' explanations and reasons. I wonder if we'll start getting any truthful and rational explanations while we’re ‘lost’ any time soon.
A friend asked how relevant this quote is nowadays, "In an age of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act," – George Orwell. I couldn't agree more. Take any event, the 9th of October Maspero events or the Mohamed Mahmoud St. clashes, if you weren’t there to witness them, you are probably ‘lost’ in a distortion of the truth. We are blessed (or cursed) with a wide variety of media sources to cover events, we 'follow' revolutionaries on Twitter to provide us with live accounts, then we of course have the most disgusting tool of them all, rumor. Some will believe the sources they're used to believing, and perhaps the majority, who just want to simply know what happened, will either be fed bullshit (excuse me) or settle for “There currently isn’t an answer to your question” (after all, iPhone 4S’s Siri can’t know everything), or settle for the first, second, or third thing they hear regardless of its validity.
‘Truth’ from ((http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/truth):
1. The true or actual state of a matter: He tried to find out the truth.
2. Conformity with fact or reality; verity: the truth of a statement.
3. A verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle, or the like: mathematical truths.
Can we have that? I'll take one truth-basket, please. Have we ever actually had that? Are we the only ones suffering from the lack of truth? You could be with or against anything, the smallest workers' protest, the police or SCAF, or the revolution itself. As a citizen of this country, I think, you have a basic and pivotal right: to know and understand what is going on. Has it become impossible to believe anything or anyone? Have we come to a sad point where anyone is a potential liar and anything we hear is a potential lie?
“بين ناشطين عايزينا نصدق إن الجيش دخل يقتل في مظاهره سلميه من باب التسليه، وتلفزيون عايزنا نصدق إن المدنيين وحوش كاسره شريره، ماتصدقش حد”
مصطفى حلمي
(Roughly Translated: Between activists who want us to believe that the army just attacked the peaceful protest for fun, and media that wants us to believe that civilians are monsters, believe no one.)
You could also ask, is this actually part of the plan? For us to be confused? For the sole, intended purpose of doubting and criminalizing our own brothers or sisters? That's when the potential conspiracy scenarios start playing in my head. What should I believe? Or should we just ignore the hunt for the actual truth and take these events as motivation to stay united and just pray for our country to be able to stand on its feet? The problem is, some people don’t know what to do because they’re unsure of what happened and how it happened. Wouldn't it be easier to take a stance if you knew the actual truth?
Then again,
“ليس كل ما يريده المرء يدركه”
(Roughly translated: Not everything one wants, he/she gets.)
What do I want from you? Not much. I'm just sharing a few thoughts with which you may or may not agree with. I'm one of those let's-agree-to-disagree people. It's working out for me just fine actually, thanks for asking. I hope we wake up to a better tomorrow. It's not just going to appear though; we'll have to work our behinds off for it. I’ve decided to go right ahead and take the risk and guarantee you that it'll be worth it. After all, I may have stopped watching ‘LOST’ but I can’t stop watching Egypt, my country, to which I give my love and my heart (taken out of the national anthem, yes. Cheesy, yes. So much for originality).