First Tahrir Square, then last year’s Gezi protests in Istanbul, and now Kiev, Caracas, Sarajevo and Bangkok – people have been taking to the streets and holding their governments accountable. A wave of popular mobilisation is gathering pace and in an age of falling voter rolls and political apathy you would have to be stony-hearted not to feel a thrill at the sight. Nothing reveals the essence of popular politics more sharply than that moment when the vast distance that separates those who have power from those in whose name they rule is annihilated. The trappings of office count for nothing, the security forces melt away and the dictator is left alone and impotent. Nicolae Ceausescu’s uncertain wave to the booing crowds in December 1989 presaged his ignoble flight and eventual death.
起先是埃及解放廣場(Tahrir Square)，然後是去年伊斯坦堡的加濟公園(Gezi)抗議，如今基輔、加拉加斯、薩拉熱窩和曼谷也加入進來，人們紛紛湧上街頭，追究政府的責任。一股「大眾動員」浪潮的勢頭越來越強——在投票人數不斷下降、民衆普遍政治冷漠的當今時代，只有鐵石心腸的人才不會爲這一幕感到心潮澎湃。當橫亙在掌權者與被統治者之間遙遠的距離被徹底打破，沒有什麼比這一刻更尖銳地揭示出大眾政治的本質。職權的排場已毫無意義，軍警瓦解，獨裁者受到孤立，再也撐不下去。1989年12月，尼古拉•西奧塞古(Nicolae Ceausescu)對著噓聲四起的人羣那遲疑的揮手，預示了他後來不光彩的逃跑和最終的死亡。