Egypt. (It was inevitable.)

The human drama of the tumult in Egypt is part of what makes the story so fascinating - Christiane Amanpour told to leave, Anderson Cooper attacked, clashes with police, oodles of rock throwing. President Mubarak's vacillation. And on and on...

But, the reason that the story is truly persistent as a topic of discussion is because it is next to impossible to interpret the various signs that are present in the story.

We understand instinctively in an event like this why abstract notions of sign/signifier meaning fail us. Perhaps the signifier "cat" is arbitrarily placed on that animal we are so familiar with, but my cat is still real, call him what you will. "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Sure, but what is the outcome of all this in Egypt to be? A country in which terrorist have a stronger foothold? Or another repressive government? Or the chance for freedom for the ordinary citizens who seem to make up the majority of the protesters?

The exact nature of the protests, the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the exact nature of the Brotherhood itself compound the interpretive hazards exponentially. President Obama has tried to have it both ways, encouraging Mubarak to step down while telling the protesters to slow their roll a bit. Conservative pundits and politicians are divided over this - some want to promote democracy and see this as a democratic revolution, some are afraid of Al Qaeda gaining ground in the area through the Muslim Brotherhood.

The very interpretation of democracy, a truly abstract concept that nevertheless has real-world consequence, is under and behind any conversation and action that we will undertake in America towards this event. I remain hopeful that this is real democratic revolution in action, and that the outcome of all this will be more freedom.

But the reason I am hopeful in this way is not because I am knowledgeable enough to interpret even half of the events in Egypt. It is because I believe that people basically want to be free to determine the course of their lives - an interpretation of human nature that owes much to The Enlightenment and rationality in general, shockingly new concepts in our history.