'And now as the Arab Spring unfolds and reveals the true chaos and messiness of the real world – above all the horror of what is happening in Syria - we find ourselves completely unable to understand it or even know what to do.'
Adam Curtis is far too Platonic* about how ability to distinguish the shadows on the cave wall; last year he wrote**, "Nobody knows what is going to happen in Syria today. The optimistic view is that a new generation is emerging who really want a proper representative democracy in which all groups can negotiate with each other without violence. The pessimistic view is that those sectarian divisions, encouraged by the French - and then incubated further by the Assad family - will re-emerge. In truth no-one knows," which is now only a claim supported by those who oppose the Syrian people controlling their own destiny (and the genuinely ignorant), but he's always very interesting.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
**http://www.bbc.co.uk/…/2011/06/the_baby_and_the_baath_water…