The idea of linking Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche to the popular revolution in Egypt came to Haim Assa in the middle of a Tel Aviv conference on cyberspace. It happened in the early days of the Arab Spring, in late 2010. Assa, previously the national security adviser and strategist of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is a mathematician currently involved in the development of defense technology systems. His book, When Marx and Nietzsche Met in Tahrir Square, was published in Israel in October.
Much has been said and written about the role played by cyberspace in propagating revolutions in the Arab world. In this book, Assa compares the political upheavals in the Arab world to previous information revolutions — the most prominent being the invention of print, which resulted in a far-reaching change of consciousness and undermined the standing of the church. He also suggests a research model to examine the conditions for the occurrence of revolutions, and he has several insights regarding the future.
