Others on the planet are under 25, and have lived now their entire lives with it down. (…hey, when did people born in the ’80′s turn into adults? ;^)

I read some bull yesterday about Gorbachev letting the Wall come down because of Reagan’s relationship with him. After it fell in 1989, there was
a lot of chest-thumping by the right-wing biased U.S. media about how Reagan’s arms buildup in the ’80′s had bankrupted the U.S.S.R.

Nonsense on both counts.

Gorbachev was indeed the catalyst, and literally the man who changed the world. But it had little to do with Reagan. After decades of repression by Stalin and disciples, Gorbachev had embarked as premier on 2 reform policies; “perestroika” (restructuring) and “glasnost” (opening of society
to outside influences)

Speech and press restrictions were lifted a little, and citizens of Iron Curtain nations began to get confirmations from Western sources of what they’d heard and felt for decades; the West had indeed prospered and enjoyed a lifestyle, well beyond what communism had delivered for them.

And that knowledge was the beginning of the end for the U.S.S.R.

In exactly the same way, that is how & why the WWW can be such a liberating catalyst within repressed nations now – Iran for example. I’ve read nearly half it’s population is under 35. They’ve been turned on to outside influences enough to know they do not want to live in an oppressive Islamic state akin to those of ancestors a thousand years ago. They simply want to join the modern world, with all it’s benefits and personal freedoms…