Ben Zimmer's NY Times Week in Review piece this past Sunday about the linguistic twists in the signs and messaging from the Egyptian protests has a lovely slide show accompanying it. I'm a sucker for a clever protest sign on any day, but the images of these are quite compelling, especially for those of us who appreciate the aesthetic quality of Arabic script.The array of languages (including hieroglyphics), motifs and genres in the signs and messages brings a smile. Even more interesting are the three photos he includes in his language log post describing the NY Times piece. The image there that really caught my eye is one (taken by Rebecca Mohey and sent to Zimmer by Susan Richards-Benson) that in his words:
shows stones arranged to spell commands of departure in five languages — Arabic إرحل (irhal), Spanish fuera, French dégage, English go out, and German:
raus
Given that stones and protests aren't usually understood to partner in this fashion, I find myself grinning like a fool whenever I look at that image. I so very much like the idea of sending messages with stones -- not as weapons but as words painted on the sidewalk. And in multiple languages, to boot!
That leads me to think about populism and protests and how we know -- or more likely how we feel -- when they are the genuine article.
My thinking about this has been informed by following some of the other discussions on LL about the purposeful use vernacular Arabic in both Tunisia and Egypt by the respective leaders during each of those crises. Both instances harken back to Nassar and the ways he used the vernacular rather than elite forms of the language to shore up popular support.
I can't really speak to the linguistics of it all, but it did remind me of all the gestures toward authentic populism that leaders make when they are in trouble. And how it is that citizens in the other places seem to know the difference. Why don't we here have that same sensibility for it? Has it been sloganeered out of us? Or have we just been sold that same bill of goods too many times for it to matter? And this isn't just a problem of disingenuous pols, or invented populist movements. Even on the left, we just can't get the right register for that populism thing down. I can't count the number of times when participating in protests that I have felt underwhelmed by the rather formulaic expressions of populism that we most quickly turn to. There are notable exceptions to prove the rule, but even when I'm surrounded by folks with whom I believe I share the most political affinity, we don't always get the populism right. As for those that take place on the right, the entire display always feels contrived and manufactured to me.
I'm pretty sure the answer to my vague pondering isn't a formula or even a pat response, but it is one of those things that -- when folks comment about how we need an Egyptian-like uprising here -- I'm pretty sure we are unlikely get it. That feeling of the authentically populist that those signs, and poems and even those stones from Cairo seem to carry really isn't something I've felt while engaged in anything political in my own country for a long time.
I wonder if I'm suffering from a case of protest-envy.