CAIRO — For Egyptian activists, Tahrir Square these days feels more like an area under military occupation than the epicenter of a revolution. Armored personnel carriers, topped with machine gunners, guard the entrances. The massive vans used to transport riot police and prisoners line the surrounding streets. High-ranking police officers in crisp white uniforms and aviator sunglasses keep watch over the traffic as helmeted riot police holding shields and batons surround the patch of grass in the square's center. Any sign of the sit-in that was in place for more than three weeks before it was violently dispersed on Aug. 1 has vanished. Even the street vendors who for the last six months have been selling Egyptian flags and commemorative revolution T-shirts have disappeared.

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The message from the ruling military junta is clear: That phase of the revolution is over.

For the most hard-core Egyptian activists, those who as much as any other can claim to be in the vanguard of the revolution that began on Jan. 25, losing the symbolic heart of their revolution is unacceptable. Some are vowing to break the military's hold on the square, even if that means being violently chased out.

But for many, losing Tahrir, while a setback, may not be the worst thing that could happen to the revolution. There seems to be a growing consensus among Egypt's revolutionaries that the road to change will be neither swift nor simple. And it will have to pass outside of Tahrir.

"The revolution has been isolated from the people's demands," says Abdallah Helmy, a 34-year-old pharmacist who is the secretary-general of the Revolutionary Youth Union, a decentralized umbrella organization that includes more than 25 other groups from across the political spectrum. "That's why two months ago we decided to stop protesting. So we can listen to the people."

Many activists are looking to push for change not just through demonstrations and sit-ins, but also by building civic education programs, providing legal counsel to nascent labor unions and those arrested by the military, and establishing a democratic political culture that wasn't allowed under President Hosni Mubarak. Although parliamentary elections are looming, many think that for now, transforming the political culture needs to be a priority.

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