The Interchangeable Dissent/Internet: What Theoretical Referents for Popular Revolutions? While popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt took by surprise policy architects, decision makers, intelligent service networks as transformative events that challenge the notorious ‘creative chaos’ doctrine, they also generate a flood of intellectual effort to explain their formation processes. While internet and dissent “guardians” are busy securing a steady realization and materialization of their goals, as the will of the whole people or nation, poets and intellectuals try to put the movement in context. As there is an agreement on the power of the internet and communication sphere (particularly al-Jazeera) in the dissemination of dissent and revolt against statist abuse and brutality, there is also an effort to legitimize the striding revolutionary discourse in the context of a national inventory where poetry and narrative play a significant role in consolidating national allegories. Recognizing the grand odes and designs masterminded by warlords and global capital, they see the new consciousness as preventive by nature and potentially subversive. The “genius of the people” is seen now in a genealogy of a “return of the soul” which Tawfiq al-Hakim claimed as impacting Nasir’s role as a heroic figure in a national epic. The emphasis is laid on “precious metal”, “essence,” and “struggle against fate.” Many intellectuals use such terms, while others conceive of revolts in a neo-Marxist framework wherein the political unconscious needs the right moment to generate the revolt of “the oppressed on the oppressor.” Others see workers’ discontent, strikes, and hundreds of protests and demonstrations as the background for revolt. They were only beyond the reach of the social media and satellite reporting. They were without voice, or, to go along with Spivak, they were the subalterns. It is only when given voice that they become part of the whole national scene. While the subaltern is no longer so with such a voice, there is also a poetic which has evolved, now disseminated and transformed from a slogan into a realpolitik. Songs, verse, sign and slogan complement the role of traditional media, but they work more effectively as a collective rallying demand and call that change over time in tune with the steadily rising momentum. Building on a common heritage, both old and new, the revolutionary poetic reintroduces a sense of nation/ness, which in turn undermines the “creative chaos” doctrine of fragmentation and loss.