[scrrr]

Perhaps a bit off-topic:

The world will change in the coming years. Not only in Egypt & Co. but also in the west. Curious to see how the governments & elites will react. A sense of enlightenment might propagate throughout the masses. For example: Tomorrow people might no longer tolerate their government's corruption. The day after they might decide that they don't really need all the stuff they buy. How would that effect everything?

If anything, people vastly underestimate the change that the Internet represents.

[katovatzschyn]

Regarding: "The day after they might decide that they don't really need all the stuff they buy."

I would like to add that it is also easy to underestimate the inherent desire to consume, purchase, and obtain material wealth- even among an informed population.

[GHFigs]

The propagation of ideas is more often a function of their fecundity than their nobility.

[scrrr]

Hm, I think that statement could be contested. But anyway, in regards to the effect the web has, one could argue that democratization has enough value to the people who are using the Internet to spread western values in their countries to go out and do something.