a butterfly flaps its wings.....

It has been said that a confluence of events often leads to the most momentous events in any history, whether it is planetary or human.

We are witnessing just such an example of this right now. IF a fruit seller could have caused people to polarize and rise up in protest then who knows what catalyst might cause a major change.

What we all have seen is:

Pigs/cows do not make an economy nor a culture, people do. As Gene Shaw points outs, without people governments do not have any power. Without the people of a country either directly supporting them or at a minimum being apathetic or afraid to speak out, despotic governments do not have any power. Again and again we have seen that if the population of a country can stick together, peacefully, they can change the very basis of their government.

In this latest example of national changes (Egypt, Tunisia, etc etc) the keys were both education and communication. Education to understand that there can be expectations of a better and brighter future that everyone has a right to expect and demand.

Communication was key to allow the organization of the protests. Communication = information (and possibly disinformation) = power. If we compare and contrast the Canadian riots and March of 1932 which necessitated the people who wanted to be heard had to communicate by word of mouth and march from the west all to way to Ottawa. Today we have seen the power of instantaneous communication whether through cell phones or the internet. People can express their concerns and organize better, more quickly and more effectively. While these same resources can be used for violent protest, in this case they have been used for non-violent change.

So most likely the following will follow:

Violence follows violence. This means that if a protest started in violence then it will be met by violence (witness, for example, the FLQ Crisis).

If a peaceful protest is responded to with violence it will eventually lead to violence OR suppression (ie Tienamen square) which will eventually have to be met with amelioration or eventually will again erupt in violence.

As Shaw also points out, there are always more people (not pigs or cows) than there are the ruling class, than those in charge. A peaceful protest serves to bring attention and embarrassment to the ruling class. Violent protest only serves to divert the attention from the topic of the protest. Peaceful protest helps to keep the focus on the issues.