(Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator)

L: Doug, a couple weeks ago we talked about mass riots spreading beyond the Middle East, and you were right. Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya – hundreds reported dead in Tripoli. But I see on Google News that some very brave individuals have organized protests in Moscow and Beijing. And now we have tens of thousands protesting in Madison, Wisconsin, citing the successful uprising in Egypt. There are counter-protesters in Wisconsin, fears of violence... talk of the governor calling up the National Guard. Is the spirit of revolution in the air?

Doug: On a deep level, there is a common thread running through these events. But, in bankrupt Wisconsin, the pro-union forces trying to hold on to artificially high wages and benefits have nothing in common with the hungry, oppressed, miserable people who took to the streets of Egypt. It's fashionable for all sorts of people with a grievance to call those Egyptians "freedom fighters" and identify themselves with them. I'm a freedom-fighter, you're a rebel, he's a terrorist. The semantics are used to muddy the distinctions, not to clarify.

To a fair degree the Egyptians really are freedom fighters – they actually did oust a tyrant – but they are just going to replace the old boss with a new boss. It's not been a radical revolution – at least not so far. The odds are that the new boss will be every bit as bad as, or worse, than the old boss, regardless of whatever window dressings of reform he uses to gain international acceptance for his regime.

Back in Wisconsin, it's completely disingenuous – actually ridiculous and shameful – for unionized state employees to label themselves freedom fighters. These are the people who most directly slop at the trough at the public's expense. They're minions of the ruling class. They're not trying to overthrow an unjust situation, they're rioting to maintain it.