“Freedom Flu”

Simon Tisdall, writing for The Guardian:

Syria is the latest Middle Eastern government to succumb to what might be termed “regime-itis”, a metaphorical contagion, both liberating and deadly, that spreads faster than the time it takes a secret policeman to pick up his truncheon. In eerie succession, one after another, autocrats and despots across the region are coming down with freedom flu. Like a virus, it spreads, from mouth to mouth and hand to hand, allowing prior immunity to none. There is no cure.

There is a cure, but it involves killing tens of thousands of people…