The Problem With Believing In Historical Evolution

... is that it depends on everyone thinking like you do.

Marx's historical imperative had the world inexorably moving towards a classless society by way of a few million dead bourgeoisie. The people were killed, but history failed to cooperate. The Obama Administration had Egypt moving towards an enlightened, progressive democracy by way of getting rid of their dictator and then getting rid of the military. After all, the only thing holding back those hip Facebookers was the evil dictator and the reactionary military.

Fantasy, meet reality.

CAIRO—Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections ... A hardline religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday...

The High Election Commission said the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hardline Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent.

My math says that's 61% for the Islamists with the even more Islamist hinterlands yet to vote. That would mean the hipsters picked up at most 39%. So much for being on the right side of history.

It was a fair election and he lost. Maybe next time, we could actually try, you know, like understanding the people we're dealing with rather than fitting them into our own personal fantasies.