This lecture was given as part of the Trust's annual lecture series in London in 2013.
Eighteen months on from the Arab Spring and a year after the Occupy protests, social unrest continues. Paul Mason explores the roots of the great dissatisfaction among the young and educated, and reflectes on how his thesis – that this is an 1848 of the mind, driven by new information networks and horizontal forms of protest – has stood up in the face of attempts to normalise and colonise the protest movements.
He also explores the changing dynamic of the economic crisis that underpins the social unrest, showing how events in Russia and China – countries that have delivered economically to their middle classes – fit into the pattern of disruption and challenge begun in Tahrir Square.
This lecture is a landmark exposition of Mason’s analysis, incorporating new research and reactions to the original criticisms of his book, Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions.
Watch lecture video (70 minutes in five parts)
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
and read the lecture here.