"Inherit the Wind"

Fanning the flames of public discontent in countries people in the West feel deserve it has come back to haunt them. It's all well and good to applaud street demonstrations and protests in the Arab world, but what happens when the same thing starts to occur in your country? When people take to the streets, become a public nuisance  and refuse to go home? Then, those same governments that cheered the protesters in Cairo, for example, don't think twice before sending the police to clear the street and public squares. Of course, a distinction can and should be made between dictatorships and democracies, where there are mechanisms for citizens to be heard and ask for redress to their grievances. But, still, there is a right to protest publicly and massively, especially, if people become convinced that there is no other effective recourse. Ultimately, there is the right to revolution, peaceful or otherwise.

In a way, people in the West have begun to realize that the so-called Arab spring could be an inspiration for a long, hot summer in their own societies.