If you ask me what the difference is between a rhinoceros
and a unicorn, I would say the unicorn is smarter than the rhinoceros. I have
no basis for saying this but it sounds good because it helps me make the points
I am about to discuss. And these points have something to do with the
presentation that the French journalist Delphine Minoui made with regard to the
parallel she sees between what is happening in Egypt
now and what a departed playwright, Eugene Ionesco saw in Europe
a long time ago – a situation he analogized in a play called Rhinoceros.
My main point is that the allegory may or may not have been
completely accurate with regard to all of Europe – I let others make that
judgment – but it is absolutely false when it comes to the situation in Egypt . Delphine
Minoui made her presentation in an article under the title: “Egypt 's
'Rhinoceros' Allegory” and had it published in the New York Times on February
19, 2014. In her words, the point she makes is this: “the parallels between the
parable about the rise of fascist and Stalinist conformity in Europe
and the growing mass hysteria surrounding the rise of el-Sisi are striking.”
She describes in great detail how much the people of Egypt took to
Field Marshall Sisi when he responded to their call, seeing them march in the
streets by the millions, and asking the army to remove the government they felt
was hijacking the revolution they pulled off with such pride only a few months
before. Witnessing all that unfold in Egypt , Minoui flashed back to the
time when she was in school, and had read the Ionesco play for the first time.
She remembers: “My teacher told us it describes … how an ideology … can reshape
people's minds.” She goes on: “The play was a vivid allegory of the upsurge in
totalitarianism across Europe , and the
conformity, fear and collective psychosis that came with it.”
Well, what Minoui needed at that time was another teacher
because he or she did not tell the class the true story behind the writing of
that play. The truth is that Ionesco was harassed by the Jewish organizations
that came close to accusing him of antisemitic tendencies, if only because he
belonged to a church that they said was instrumental in bringing an openly
antisemitic group into the Romanian government – and not all of Europe as
claimed by Minoui.
To respond to the charges, Ionesco wrote Rhinoceros in which
he created the character Berenger to represent him. That character lived in a
French town representing Romania
at the time that the Ionesco family lived there. Eventually the entire
population of the town goes crazy and turns into beasts the way that Romania turned
fascist and antisemitic. The exception is Berenger who remains sane to the end,
and pledges never to capitulate. And this was Ionesco's way of saying all of Romania may
have gone crazy but not me.
What is curious about the way that Minoui has handled this
piece is that the style she is using does not suit the situation she says she
is describing. Ionesco wrote the play not because he was accusing someone but
because someone was accusing him. He took the accusations in stride then made a
joke about the situation by writing the play. In contrast, Minoui is accusing
the entire Egyptian population of having gone bananas, and also pointed the
finger directly at individuals she knew personally or by name, accusing them of
things not because she wanted to remain friends with them but to express a deep
seated hatred for them.
And while doing this, she dredges the small details in
Egyptian history as well as the current situation to try and match them with
the small details and the lesser characters in the play. For example, she
writes that “Today's Egyptian liberals and leftists remind me of Botard. After
resisting the military, many like Botard succumbed to its will.” She also
mentions another character called Dudard who “summarizes the situation
perfectly: His desire is to join the universal family.”
And when you want to openly express hate for something, what
can be more expressive than this: “the newly turned rhinoceroses of Egypt are the
same ones who used to accuse the Muslim brotherhood's supporters of being
sheep”? And how about this: “For many, putting on an awkward rhinoceros horn is
more comfortable than risking losing everything in the name of freedom”?