I highly doubt that the king massacring half of the current power structure for his own ends, and castrating the other half is an arab spring, and will not brin

I highly doubt that the king massacring half of the current power structure for his own ends, and castrating the other half is an arab spring, and will not bring increased freedom. We all know what's coming next: a few incidents where the old power structure takes some small measure of revenge, followed by mistrust, fear and repression. The king, and all of the new government, does not trust it's hold on power and will have to cut benefits across the population. These things don't mix well. Half the western press is implying that the current king, who was not even the successor to the throne as little as 5 years ago is really an attempt to modernize and westernize saudi arabia. This is exactly the line the saudi government is putting out (while keeping significant parts of the old power structure hostage at gunpoint one might add [1], maybe worse than just keeping them hostage [2]). Currently the king is taking a populist viewpoint, but that's out of desperation and fear. The economic reality means he's going to have to cut financial benefits to the population by a lot. And if there's one thing for absolute certain in this world, it's that that has never brought social progress. Conservatives will increase in power as a result of this for obvious reasons. What will happen ? It's embarassing, one might even suspect a lot of money is involved in that western press attitude. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-elite-became-five-star-prisoners-at-the-riyadh-ritz-carlton https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/06/how-saudi-elit... [2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mercenaries-torturing-Saudi-princes.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mer...