Let me first say the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt will not change the political map for the better in the Middle East as far as the Western idea of change is concerned. There will be no great democratic whirlwind because the leaders who are falling are old men, their time had come years ago. There will be no rapprochement with Israel because Egypt’s treaty always depended upon it being a bankrupt country, not a country interested in peace.
The truly amazing lesson to be learned about what is happening is that it is being organized on the Internet. Not the old communist coffee houses in foreign countries arguing over books and secreting revolutionaries in special places, or the French straw that breaks the camel’s back, but campaigns millions read at the same time and then act upon, on line. This is truly revolutionary and along with it are going social revolutions all over the world because the Internet has brought billions of people to within the social range of a few tens of thousands. Because it empowers individuals to get something started and run with it.
Politics is only the most recent area to be affected, it will change how we do everything because soon criminals will be outed and corruption will be targeted. There is never a shortage of brave people to put their lives on the line when they are angry and this world is a very angry world.