A pox of rocks...

So you and thousands of your fellow citizens are angry at your government and you want nothing short of total regime change. Got it. An ouster!

So what's your strategy? You mean your best line of offense in achieving this epic goal is to gather up some small rocks and throw them at tanks and shielded riot police? And you're telling me that this actually works? Seems to be the case...

I know I'm simplifying things, and to be clear I love how fundamentally theatrical this all is. Sure sticks and stones do break bones, but given the array of powerful weapons that are available and used in other parts of the world by angry citizens, I'm just amazed and inspired by the power of symbolic force and relatively benign gestures of violence I've seen in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. In some ways the protests are for the camera; what physically happens outside the frame of the newsreel, doesn't matter so much. The protesters' real-world message lives or dies on its cinematic execution. Have I got this all wrong?