Egypt: the hell that will follow the coup's demise

Egypt can reverse the economic damage done by the clique that has taken power and turned the country into a wasteland rather than a homeland.

Egypt can recover from its political ailments and eventually cure itself of all the diseases that infect democracy and political progress.

But how will Egypt ever heal its moral collapse? How can a society regain its humanity when it has been infected with toxic values, when concepts like coexistence, good-neighbourliness, solidarity and cooperation have been rendered obsolete, replaced by predation, abuse and theft?

How can something be called a human society if everyone in it lives according to the rule 'everyone is innocent except for the Muslim Brotherhood'?

How can something be called a human society if everyone in it lives according to the rule "everyone is innocent except for the Muslim Brotherhood", where social and professional advancement takes place depending on the level of individual hatred of the Brotherhood and collaboration with the regime’s crack-down against them?

Close your eyes and imagine that the junta leaves power tomorrow. Imagine now what shape society will be in after years of feeding on hatred. How can its members live in conditions fit for normal people when they have been forced to live according to the logic of predators?

What would a man who was jailed when he was in his prime and freed with his back bent by torture do to the neighbour or colleague who turned him in to the authorities?

What would a woman violated and humiliated in the darkness of her prison cell do to the neighbour or colleague who turned her in as a Brotherhood sympathiser?

How can such a society where lawsever get back to normal, let alone progress?

It is possible for political reconciliation to take place one day. But what about social reconciliation? Has anyone thought about how to deal with the gaping rifts in society?

These questions are for the intellectual elite, particularly sociologists and psychologists. However, unfortunately for Egypt, its elite has sunk much lower than the everyone else.

As they busy themselves bargaining over the revolution like estate agents, our political leaders are more interested in reviving tourism than in the tens of thousands languishing in jail.

When nations are defeated in war, they soon rise again. When they collapse economically, they can recover through hard work and outside help.

But when nations collapse morally, it is not so easy to for them to get back on their feet, especially when their intellectuals elite has hit rock bottom.

This is an edited translation of the original Arabic.