How I've missed it since you stopped posting.
You had a good post there, my friend. Many salient points were made, but I'm going to take my time with just a few...
I liked your point about the "longevity" of revolution, and that ours has lasted the longest. It brought to my mind a fact that isn't bantered about much... if at all... since I was still in school.
Democracy lasts.
The oldest extant republican government on the face of the earth belongs to the 35,000 citizens of the Most Serene Republic of San Marino, which can cast its history back to 301 AD and the Diocletian Persecutions. Its Constitution was penned in 1600, and has been officially recognized by all other continuous governmental bodies as sovereign since 1631 (these others include the Vatican, England, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, France and Portugal). Since the fall of the western Roman Empire, it has recognized no king... only its elected Captains are seen as chief executives or heads of state.
Ranking right up there as well is Switzerland. A federated republic since 1275, its current Constitution dates from the end of the turmoil brought about central Europe by Napoleon... 1878, and is still uniquely "democratic" in its nature, even by US standards.
Iceland can trace its legislative government back to 930 and the institution of the Commonwealth and the Althing. This lasted until 1262... when Denmark and Norway united under one crown and "took over" Icelandic foreign affairs. Still, the legislative/judicial body known as the Althingi still exists, and still administers the island and its citizens. That's more than 1,000 years of uninterrupted (domestically, at least) democratic rule.
Do you see my point? When the vox populi is heard, regularly and efficiently, the government lasts. What has kept the British monarchy on the throne as long as it has been there? Parliament, that's what. When the monarchs (after Charles I, that is) ran out of money... the went to Parliament and asked for more. To do otherwise was to take their fortunes and their very lives in their hands.
Hearing that vox populi is NOT a traditional part of eastern history, though... and the Islamic world has had a particularly bad record in paying any attention to it whatsoever. The Ottomans were the most recent monarchs to ignore it, and the loss of WWI and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey were the results. Then you have the likes of Nassir, Hussien, the Shah and his successors, the Ayatollahs, Mushariff, Gaddafi, et al... all felt the razor's edge of the plebiani as they rose up and rioted their way to some kind of resolution.
We haven't seen "democracy" win in the Middle East... we have only seen the plebs rising up and making their voices heard in one violent shout. To see democracy take root, we'll have to see the same thing on a regular basis, sans the violence. Regular, fair and open elections are not conducive to continued repressive rulers or radical, ultra-religious regimes... and thus, probably won't be allowed should those types take power in the first place.
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