Not Terribly Well Written Out

My office is right around the corner from the Libyan consulate and as I was walking home from work yesterday there was quite a scene, to say the least, across the street.  A loud and raucous crowd had gathered to celebrate the revolution, but not necessarily nor exclusively the Libyan one per se, but the revolutionary vibe throughout the Middle East--the world even. 

I have been reading Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland and in it he cites John Steinbeck’s horrified reaction to the revolutionary sentiments of the 1960’s particularly that this was all transpiring “in a time of plenty such as has never been known.”  This is an interesting contrast to the conditions now, for in spite of the economic prosperity of the ‘60s, the youth of this country were so disillusioned by the lies being spouted by their government that a rebellion in retrospect was inevitable. 

Perhaps it is stating the obvious that history seems to have taught us that revolutions tend to occur when the oppression of a government manifests itself in the form of dramatic economic disenfranchisement of the people, as is the case in the Middle East.  Perhaps it is now a foregone conclusion that one’s government is more likely than not lying to him, but the extent to which this is the case seems to be what can provide the adequate spark.  An argument can be made that the new medium of greatly expanded televised news broadcasting played a similar role in the revolt of the 1960’s as the novel social networking sites in the Middle East (Twitter, Facebook).