Iran, Honduras, and the '70s

Something I have been pondering as a result of Democracy Now! podcasts and Bruce Sterling's blog, Beyond the Beyond: Does real political change in a country require a certain age demographic to maintain itself? Protests following election results in Iran have led to now month long protests. The president of Honduras was ousted by a military coup, but citizens in support of the president, in support of the military coup, and against both the president and the military coup are actively in the streets. I witnessed the power and determination of youth and veteran activism as a result of Bush's policies--and hopefully will continue to see activism, though ideally it would be different with Obama--but it seems that prolonged aggravation of the powers that be, such as in Iran and will possibly emerge in Honduras, relies upon the hope, energy, and stubbornness that is characteristic of segments of the younger segment of a population. When the youth are larger by comparison to the more aged demographics, that allows a greater pool of individuals to be incorporated into a poltiical movement requiring hope, energy, and pig-headedness.

These, I admit, are musings. All the same, I am interested in examining demographic characteristics of those periods and places when activism was crucial in sculpting the political and cultural (not just one or the other, but both) landscape of that historical moment. I am not shying from the fact that history is developing in the streets of Tehran and how Obama responds to Honduras will prove the first testing ground of his policies for Latin America.

With an aging population in most industrialized, high-tech nations, does this mean that they will--by simple demographic factors--politically stabilize? I certainly hope not; but after a conversation with my new sister-in-law's father, it seems that the perception of the malleability of society, the mending of its faults, and the transformation of its politics changes. Now, anyone can also point out the significant activists and intellectuals, that I am not contesting; what concerns me is the ideology of political dynamics for a demographic generally speaking, which very well may follow trends that impact the sociocultural milieu in important ways. (You may notice some dodging of the question, which is not intended to deter critique, but demarcate my query.)

Anyway, something to research more...