Egypt is in “decline” and has “descended into corruption, inequality and bigotry” after once being “a diverse, cosmopolitan society,” Steven A. Cook writes for Salon. Cook says that, while there is “a lot of hagiography about Egypt during its so-called liberal period — roughly the years following World War I through the 1940s,” it has been hard to make the case most of the last 60 years. He sees what he views as an Egyptian decline a warning sign for the US. “At a level of abstraction, that toxic brew of populist, nationalist, religious politics that combined with cynicism to cause Egypt’s regression is present in American society too,” Cook writes. He looks back to the policies of former presidents Nasser and Sadat, but says with “their parochial politics, they manipulated identities, whipped up nationalism and sowed division. The result is an Egypt that has lurched dysfunction ally from one crisis to the next, unable to solve its problems because society has become so deeply polarized, mistrust and cynicism reign, and violence is an ever-present possibility. Unless Americans are careful, Egypt’s present reality could be our country’s future.”

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