History of revolutions is not encouraging

While everyone is cheering the fall of Mubarak, one should consider that many earlier revolutions have had disastrous near term results. The mother of all revolutions - the French Revolution (triggered by the Age of Enlightenment) - resulted in the reign of terror and decades of warfare and revolution in Europe. The Russian Revolution resulted in about a hundred years of oppression of the Russian and other people. The Iranian Revolution has resulted in ongoing oppression of the Iranian people. The liberation of African and South American colonies mostly resulted in African Democracy - One Man, One Vote, One Time. Some successes, to be sure, but mostly failures. The American Revolution worked for the people of the original 13 Colonies - maybe the only example that worked for the people concerned.

The outcome of the likely wave of revolutions in Muslim North Africa and the Near and Middle East is uncertain. I hope that they will be more peaceful and Democratic than their predecessors in Europe, Africa, and South America. I am not optimistic. ---
Clive - on my iPhone - pardon autocorrect induced typos.

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