Chatterati asleep at the Mahgreb wheel.....

 If had I my wits about me, I could have predicted the defenestration of Middle Eastern regimes. It is a bit untidy that I am not more proactive in anticipating and predicting what is going on there, especially when the facts are so apparent and compelling. While I meet each day in anticipation of what events might befall the world, I really should be checking to find out which of my expectations are about to mature. In addition, there are countless journalists and political pundits who have a lot to account for in their failure to highlight antecedents to revolution.

Fareed on CNN, in retrospect I might add, contributed some insights into the ME situation that I had not considered. He first spoke of the massive youth populations approaching and sometimes topping the demographic halfway mark. Given the global economic situation, large numbers of these youth are unemployed. Secondly, he noted the pervasive use of social networks such as Facebook. These, he stated, were not only sources of information, but sources of leadership. Instead, Fareed continued, of only listening to national leaders on social, economic and political matters, the social networks offer a viable and refreshing alternative to controlled and scripted dictatorial statements.

Performing routine and mundane tasks such as making concentric circles in my pastures on my tractor offers plenty of time for processing current events. My latest is projecting the global role of social networks on human behavior. The town crier has gone not only regional and national but global. Hear ye, hear ye world, our esteemed leaders and their minions have amassed billions in national wealth and stashed it safely abroad while we pee-ons go hungry. While dictators' wives have closets full of shoes for their social jaunts to glitterati hot spots, many of the people, especially youths, are jobless, frustrated, alienated and hostile toward their leaders.

The less numerous older and elderly people, I believe, remain emotionally attached to their leaders as father figures and national icons. I saw this personally in Indonesia when Suharto's regime went belly up. After all the nasty things people said about him and his corrupt family, tears flowed when he announced his departure from office.

The events in the ME have not gone ignored by American youth. Although they are far from fomenting a revolution, they are beginning to ask why so many people enter politics poor and idealistic and retire rich and cynical. Our public media, in the meantime, is busy lauding or condemning O for having won or lost in his efforts to manage the latest crisis.