Reality bites Politician and Friend #auspol

These are dangerous times for our political class and their hangers on. Especially those who treat their constituents like mushrooms. But most of them haven't worked it out yet. They will soon enough.

Greece has a new Prime Minister - because the old one wanted to hold a referendum on the "austerity measures" that are being imposed on his country by the European Union. The power elite didn't like that idea.

And now Italy's Berlusconi has gone. One minute he is top of his game - hosting bunga bunga parties with Italian starlets - and the next he is toast. Just shows how important it is to keep one's eye on the ball - Silvio.

And James Murdoch gets arrested - someone really is paying attention.

The Arab spring was just the beginning. Now we are seeing a new wave of semi democratic leaders stumble. My guess is that many of the nations that have been pretending democracy will end up in similar crisis. Because when it comes to the crunch they aren't.

Pretty soon a whole raft of pseudo regimes will start to crumble. Why? Because the people are sick of being lied to and ridden roughshod over. The young in particular have become politically active because they feel downtrodden with many being jobless and living in poverty. Pseudo democracy hasn't done much for them.

The rise in social networking - along with Wikileaks - has opened the kimono and exposed the big lie that is democracy. It isn't about the people - it's all about protecting the capitalist elite. In the eyes of the 1% *capitalism* equals *democracy* - end of story.

That's why the US, UK and AU governments are working so hard to neutralise Julian Assange and take down Wikileaks. Because you can often buy a bit more time by shooting the messenger.

So if I were in power in one of these pseudo democracies - I would be rushing to do a couple of things.

* I would be engaging furiously with the people to demonstrate my democratic credentials - all to buy some time.

* While I was working overtime to transition my propaganda machine into one that embraces and exploits social media.

Because it is only then that things will start to look a little less dangerous for our political class.

You think I am joking - don't you Virginia ;-)