Dr. Jack Goldstone

So let's see what happens.

And what happened is when people felt, hey, you know, there's nobody stopping us.

They started going over the wall, taking it apart.

You'll see revolutions.

Sometimes the police or the troops will come into the street and they'll shoot a few protesters.

That makes the crowd mad.

And then if the government says, well, that's what they deserve.

They were enemies of the state.

We're going to come out with even stronger force.

And the army is willing to do that.

Then the revolution stops.

On the other hand,

If the government has a crisis of authority or a crisis of confidence and said, oh, we really didn't want to shoot civilians, and the army starts to say, we didn't want to be in this position of shooting our own people, then revolutionary momentum can start to build.

And over the next hours, days, weeks, the revolution can grow to the point where the government has to throw its arms down and run away.

Well, here's the thing.

Yes, in some countries, if you have a ruthless government and a ruthless dictator, they'll send out overwhelming force to crush protests.

They'll arrest people, throw them in jail.

They'll knock on doors at night to try and grab the ringleaders.

They'll take control of the TV waves and put out a message, don't you dare come out because the military is keeping order.

So, you know, communist China, Islamic Republic in Iran, they've done whatever it takes to stay in power.