against rural people, workers or dissidents.

If these common experiences have made this age-group into a "generation", the uprising in Tunisia and the revolts which followed have made them into a political generation, which sees itself as a player in the political events, and is seen as such by others.

As a result, the demands made by the protest movements are much the same everywhere – although they are different from the slogans which one could hear in Europe in the angry protests of the 80s and 90s of the last century. With rare exceptions, we have not been hearing "Islam is the solution", or "Down with imperialism and Zionism".

Unlike earlier revolts in Arab countries, these uprisings have been non-ideological, and, as the French Islam expert Olivier Roy puts it,and how they dealt with the public declarations of loyalty required by the government.

Everyone knew that voting in presidential elections in countries like Syria, Egypt and Tunisia – elections which were described in the official media as "acts of homage" towards the incumbent – made no difference to the result. Governments and ruling parties called themselves "democratic", although they merely guaranteed the power of a small clique. Anti-corruption campaigns always failed to have any effect on those favoured by the regime.

There was always talk of Arab solidarity and support for the Palestinians, even though the largest Arab state, Egypt, kept its border with the Gaza strip closed and thus supported the Israeli blockade. And the regimes always glorified their past achievements, even though they had no relevance to