For original Blog post, see:
http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/egypt-back-at-square-one/?ref=international
By and large the (news) media got it all wrong when it comes to predicting the success/failure of the "Arab Spring", especially in Egypt. There was an unrealistic euphoria about the young generation, "armed" with social media, to change what is essentially a religion-based and tribal-based society (much like Europe in the Middle Ages) into an advanced, modern democracy "over night". Mr. Friedman is a columnist who was especially vocal in this regard.
As depressing and "defeatist" as it may sound, societies seem to need to go through "modernization" and "liberalization" and "secularization" processes at their own pace. A society, for example, cannot change from a religion-dominated one to a secular, civil society overnight. We, the West", can offer support through education and economic aid, but we certainly cannot speed up the process by intervening on one side or the other, especially militarily.
A minority of educated people in a country can have great influence on the needed secularization and modernization process but it is not a given that this will lead in the "right" direction. The founder of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, for example, was a student in California and became so disgusted with what he perceived as the debauchery of "the West" that it lead to the creation of a religious and repressive movement.
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