You Say You Want a Revolution

Has anyone noticed how easy it is to start a revolution these days?  With the advent of social media and flash mobs a bright 15 year old can start one from his basement between rounds of World of Warcraft.  A really bright 15 year old might stop to think about what comes next.  Apparently thinking about what comes next falls into a category of prolonged thought that seems not to be the forte of social media and flash mobs.

Here are a couple of examples:

• The Occupy Movement in the United States.  Let's start a people's movement but not have any leaders or proclaimed goals.  Yes... democracy is supposed to be directed by the people but traditionally we do that by electing leaders who share our common goals. Get it?  Three hundred and eleven million people repeating what anyone says gets to be a bit unwieldy.  We understand that you are upset that three million of those people control most of the money (yes... the 1% is made up of over 3,000,000 people). Before you have any more extended camp outs, you should probably think about what you want to happen next.  Also you should probably try to agree on a leader or some leaders.  
• The Arab Spring in Bahrain.  Let's see... no one disputes that the rate of educated people is high and that unemployment is low.  It looks like the same argument from the U.S. Occupy movement.  Some people have most of the money and the best jobs.  There have to be some perks to being in the monarchy.  People who are trying to overthrow the government are violently put down.  Hmm... are there any countries out there who realistically don't react violently to people trying to overthrow the government?  I used to think that the U.S. didn't do that kind of stuff, but we certainly have learned that that's not true anymore.  Okay... so let's look at the end game.... if the revolution goes through, what is to stop Iran from taking Bahrain as a province?  (That has been their declared goal for hundreds of years.)  Oh right... nothing.  It is quite a small country, so it wouldn't really be that great for Iran except for it's strategic location and willingness to host the U.S.'s Fifth Fleet.  

I totally understand the natural human tendency to revolt.  It's very exciting and often you get to actually burn things.  Sometimes revolutions turn out well.  So far it doesn't look like the results have been so great for Egypt, Libya or Syria this time, but who knows?  Maybe they can still pull something good out of it.  

My advice is not that we should stop having revolutions, but rather that you look around at what you've already got and then weigh the possible outcomes before you write the tweet heard round the world.