The Arab Spring: started by the young, controlled by the old

[JCMach1]

When the Arab Spring was born, it had a young face. On the streets of Sidi Bouzid, then Tunis, then Cairo, Benghazi, and beyond, it was 20- and 30-somethings who hit the pavement to demand change in the face of tear gas and bullets.

They were lauded as a new, internet-savvy generation fed up with the archaic dictators of the past.

But 10 months later, the revolution has aged. In the first democratic election since the turmoil began, Tunisia has elected a greying political class. More than half the candidates for the new Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution over the next year were over 46. And the leaders of the three most successful parties are all over 65. Two of these men lived in exile in France for 20 years, removed from the hard reality that spurred revolution.

It's often said revolutions eat their young, but rarely has it been such a feast. On the streets of Tunis and across the Middle East, the young revolutionaries have been taken aback. A movement that spread on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube is today being run by a generation that lived without computers most of their lives... http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/the-arab-spring-started-by-the-young-controlled-by-the-old

That didn't take long. :(

[pennylane100]

1. It never takes long.

And yet people are still surprised. Its like an ocean liner trying to make U-turn, it never happens instantly.