slouching towards bethelehem (2)

i remember when the "Arab Spring" first began back in 2011, and all the Western newspapers were crowing about how this marked a victory for democracy, i told my students that the journalists had no idea what they were talking about, and that this "spring" would end in disaster. i could not understand how anyone could fail to see it. How could the violent overthrow of an established regime in a disorderly region, without anything to replace it, possibly end well?
.
i wonder if any of my former students still remember what i said back then.
.
Anyway. So now we have Syria, and the refugee crisis, and any number of other disasters, bringing the world down with them in a ever-widening spiral. i would give anything to have been wrong.
.
.