It isn’t easy to track down a positive word about the Middle East these days. Then again, Juan Cole is not your typical observer. A professor of history at the University of Michigan, he is also a prolific and popular blogger on current affairs. An American, he spent part of his childhood in France and Ethiopia. A left-leaning idealist, he comes across as far more optimistic than the dour Occupy crowd. A cosmopolitan in constant touch with 20-somethings, he seems to be addressing boomers in his latest book, “The New Arabs,” which is replete with explanations that digital natives would never need. (Don’t know what the “meatspace” is? Read on.)在如今，关于中东，你很难听见什么正面的说词。此外，胡安·科尔(Juan Cole)可不是一般的观察家。他是密歇根大学的历史教授，也是既高产又热门的时事博客专栏作家。他是美国人，但童年时期曾多次在法国和埃塞俄比亚生活过。
他是个左倾的理想主义者，比那些阴沉沉的“占领者”们要悲观得多。他是个世界主义者，还常常和20多岁的人做事，他的新书《新的阿拉伯人》(The New Arabs)中有很多注解是数码一代显然不必须的，所以更加看起来对婴儿潮一代公开发表的演讲——你不告诉什么叫“肉体空间”（meatspace，来自赛博朋克和科幻小说术语，所指和“网络世界”“虚拟世界”比较的“现实世界”——学术著作）？接着往下读。
“The New Arabs” chronicles the heart-stirring youth revolts in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Early on, Cole does some defying of his own. “The rise of the Internet,” he notes, “may not have been as central to these social movements as some Western press coverage assumed.”《新的阿拉伯人》按时间顺序记述了再次发生在埃及、突尼斯和利比亚激动人心的青年镇压运动。一开始，科尔的观点有些对立，“互联网的兴起在这些社会运动中所起的起到，也许并不像某些西方媒体所报导的那样最重要，”他认为。To be sure, Cole affirms that online networks dramatically amplified the reach and resonance of protesters’ demands for state accountability. Take the iconic story of Mohamed Bouazizi. Ripped off and slapped by a government employee, the young Tunisian self-immolated in front of his local city hall, igniting the first of the uprisings. Internet buzz propagated the myth that Bouazizi had graduated from college, making an educated underclass think of him as one of their own and thus take up his cause. In fact, because of poverty, Bouazizi had not even finished high school. Nor was his name Mohamed; it was Tarek. Ah, the baptismal power of social media.科尔指出，抗议者们拒绝政府更加有责任感，而网络也显然很大地拓展了他们的影响力，为他们带给更加多回响。
就拿早已沦为典型的穆罕默德·布瓦吉吉(Mohamed Bouazizi)的故事来说吧。这个突尼斯年轻人被政府官员诈骗和掌掴，于是在当地市政厅门前自杀，沦为武装起义的导火线。互联网很快缩放了布瓦吉吉的神话，说道他是大学毕业生，这不会令其一个接受教育的下层社会成员实在他是自己人，想要承继他的事业。
事实上，由于贫困，布瓦吉吉连中学都没有读完。他的名字也不是穆罕默德，而是塔里克(Tarek)。啊，这就是社交媒体的洗脑力量。
Still, the Internet is only one strand of a much broader web that Cole weaves. His is a huge challenge: to map the outbreaks of tumult that have crisscrossed Tunisia, Egypt and Libya over the past decade. Strikes, bread shortages, lack of water, inflation, unemployment — all on top of a generational thirst for personal autonomy and political liberty. It makes for chaotic reading. Policy wonks get their fill. The rest of us need patience.不过，科尔编织了一张更大的网络，互联网只是其中一环。他的网络是一个极大的挑战——要描绘出过去十年内突尼斯、埃及和利比亚愈演愈烈的各种暴乱。大罢工、面包紧缺、缺水、通货膨胀、失业——这一切都落在渴求个人自治权与政治权利的一代人头上。
这些事件令其这本书充满著恐慌。热衷政治的读者不会心满意足，而其他读者则必须冷静。Yet Cole does eventually deliver. In a particularly vivid section, he describes the breathtaking pluralism of those who put themselves on the front lines to protect Egyptian demonstrators. Coptic Christian youths served as bodyguards for their Muslim peers. They knew that as Muslims prostrated during Friday prayer — the prelude to pouring into the streets — their bowed heads would invite attack. Soccer thugs found new purpose as bouncers around Tahrir Square. Muslim Brothers, too, shielded secular friends, especially on the day some jobless tour guides rode camels straight into crowds of activists.但是科尔最后还是做了。他叙述了那些车站在最前茅去维护埃及抗议者的人们，这是激动人心的多元主义，这个部分也十分生动。
埃及改信基督教的年轻人为他们的穆斯林伙伴当作保镖，因为他们告诉穆斯林在周五要匍礼拜——这是他们踏上街头抗议的序曲——而穆斯林们都低着头，军警不会反击他们。足球流氓们有了新的的活动：在塔里尔广场附近维护抗议者。
穆斯林兄弟会也去维护他们世俗的朋友，特别是在有些丧失工作的导游骑着骆驼的路冲展开一动分子人群的那一天。The book hits its stride in Libya. Catching revolution fever after Tunisia and Egypt, young Libyans took advantage of the world’s eyeballs. Their online savvy combined with old-fashioned lobbying to secure a no-fly zone above Libya. When one of Qaddafi’s sons shut down Internet access, he was outwitted: Using their cellphones, dissenters called a special number that automatically turned their voice mail messages into tweets.这本书对利比亚的报导也很精彩。年长的利比亚人亲眼目睹了突尼斯与埃及的革命疯狂，也想要乘机利用世界的注目。
他们把网络智慧和老式的议会游说融合一起，确保利比亚海面有了禁飞区。卡扎菲的一个儿子重开了互联网，但他被人们的智慧打败了。有所不同政见者们用手机电话一个类似的号码，可以自动把他们的语音信息传遍Twitter上去。
Ultimately, though, it was rebels in the fields, factories and alleys who kept Qaddafi and his gang on the run. Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, stopped nothing. Sunset marked an opportunity to refuel with food and arms. Dusk prayers served “as a signal to begin the uprising,” even among those who were secretly fighting to separate mosque and state.但最后，还是再次发生在农田、工厂与小巷中的抗议行动造成了卡扎菲和同党的辞职。穆斯林的斋月也没造成事态暂停。
日领先，人们就有机会补足食物和武器。弥撒出了“武装起义的信号”，甚至那些密谋让伊斯兰教与政府分离出来的人们也遵从这个信号。
For all of the “liking” and “sharing,” Cole shows that the revolution’s most important triumphs took place in the sphere of physical effort — the “meatspace.”至于社交网络上那些“拜”和“共享”，科尔的书指出，革命最重要的胜利都是现实社会中的希望所带给的——也就是我们前面所说的“肉体空间”。But to what end? Is the Middle East truly transforming? Tunisia offers a clue. In the wake of the uprisings, “over a hundred new political parties had been founded.” By contrast, the previous regime “allowed only eight.” And those parties will be busy. A “celebrated” Tunisian rapper supports Shariah law. A “prominent intellectual” scorns Shariah as the product of Judaism and therefore a travesty. Above all, a teacher observes, “Now we have to learn democracy.”但是胜利到什么程度呢？中东知道改头换面了吗？突尼斯的情况可以提供线索。武装起义之后，“正式成立了100多个新的政党”。
忽略，之前的政权“只容许八个政党不存在”。这些政党将不会朋友们。
一个“出名的”突尼斯饶舌歌手反对伊斯兰教法。一个“知名知识分子”痛恨伊斯兰教法，称之为其是犹太教的产物，是糟糕的仿效五品。一个教师认为：“现在我们必需自学民主。”Unorthodox wisdom for an era in thrall to instant gratification.对于一个被困于当下满足感的时代来说，这可谓异端的智慧。
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