Celebrating the second anniversary of the January 2011 revolution has led some Egyptians to call for a third uprising; considering that the first was the ousting of Mubarak and the second revolution was marked by the Muhammad Mahmud Street events, which forced the Military Counsel to set a date for the military authority’s handover to civilians. Others may say that the revolution has realized its aims of changing the ruling elite.

Celebrating the second anniversary of the January 2011 revolution has led some Egyptians to call for a third uprising; considering that the first was the ousting of Mubarak and the second revolution was marked by the Muhammad Mahmud Street events, which forced the Military Counsel to set a date for the military authority’s handover to civilians. Others may say that the revolution has realized its aims of changing the ruling elite.

Both viewpoints are de facto not sufficiently realistic since they suppose that revolutions must follow a straightforward course, while the Egyptian revolution, in reality, is still ongoing, with the above mentioned events just constituting chains of a revolutionary series still operating within the Egyptian community; it will only stop with the actualization of its entire aims of changing the ruling elite, social values system, the dominant social structure and the relationships among society segments, classes and groups.

I believe that a large part of this confusion results from a lack of understanding about the nature of revolutions.  Examples of successful revolutions that managed to achieve political and social change affirm that the zigzag course may be the mechanism by which revolutions face challenges and counter forces expressing and defending social interests. The French Revolution, to which revolutions are compared, faced counterrevolutions for 100 years and finally defeated them, actualizing its slogan “Justice, Freedom and Equality”.

Despair could have its way to the selves of some revolutionary actors thinking that the revolution has been stolen and the people are no more concerned with completing it, especially that they have started to express regret for the days of the former regime as no gains have been achieved two years since the revolution.

Unfortunately, this group of people make up the fuel that counter revolutions intend to attract, and to some extent, they have benefitted from fabricated insecurity and chaos that has plagued Egyptian society. However, these forces, at the top of which are Islamic ones, proved themselves losers; this has in turn generated a new impetus for the revolution and the opportunities to accomplish it.

Basing on previous revolutionary experiences, we deduce that a revolution eventually achieves its aims, though using a zigzag course that takes a longer time. The disappointment deeply felt by the public affirms that they still want to complete the revolution and achieve its aims, and that the current phase marked by the only organized party’s domination of power is about to end, as the public has come to know for certain that these forces are absolutely bankrupt, have no vision for change and achieving people demands, and are conspiring with Western powers to turn the revolution into a mere uprising; this enables maintaining the existing economic structure and social formulation. The impossibility of subjecting people to such a vision, affirmed by the developments since February 2011, is in itself a victory for the revolution, despite all lapses.

The January 25^th revolution could destroy the fear within the Egyptians, affirming to them that the peoples’ will can achieve the impossible, which is so critical in the current confrontation, since authoritarian regimes depend on people’s passivity. The daily social protests, persistent resistance to attempts at domesticating society and turning it into a brotherhood society, and the rejection of the constitution drafted by one force thinking that it is in total control; all of these underline that the Egyptians have abandoned passivity forever to continue their revolution, even if they themselves think otherwise. After all, true revolutions, like that of Egypt, are floods that no one can stop or channel into directions other than their original ones.