Mere coincidence?

Are the outbreaks of violence across the Middle East linked to each other?  Indeed, one may be left pondering, just as I am, as to why all these outbursts of violence are declaring themselves now. Why now? What's special about 2011? And all these protests seem to have little in common (aside from their respective oppressors). When revolutions erupted in European countries to overthrow monarchs, it didn't happen simultaneously all across Europe! I feel comfortable in saying that no one, after watching the French, wanted to experience what revolution felt like. But when political analysts or anchors like Glenn Beck point to this phenomenon, they are ridiculed and put on the spot as believing in conspiracies or other theories deemed crazy.  First of all, is it crazy to speak about conspiracies?  It seems that the word itself has a negative connotation, one that is avoided in the media.  It would actually be scary to imagine that all this mayhem is caused by a particular group for a specific purpose.  It would mean that some non-governmental groups are more powerful than some governments. But the truth and the matter is that we do not even need to enter this speculative realm to realize that it cannot be a mere coincidence.  Many have dealt with this issue by saying that these protests are contagious.  For these people it seems that in 2011, the oppressed people suddenly took matter into their own hands and found the power to stand up against oppressors and dictators.  But the question remains: why now?  Furthermore, it is not because Tunisia found the strength to overthrow Ben Ali that suddenly Libya would have the same power against Kaddafi.  Even if we accept the idea that unrest engenders more unrest, even across borders, there are so many factors that enter the equation in order to make the protests possible that it seems unlikely everyone suddenly had the same means to achieve their goals.  People who protest cannot work, so they must get money from somewhere.  Weapons aren’t free either.  And to destabilize a government tightly protected by arm forces, you generally need more than people shouting with signs in the street: you need insiders at all level of the bureaucracy and government, and that is not something that can happen overnight. My point is that I do not think these protests are random or unrelated.  Why aren’t there more discussions about this on the news?