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This piece of blog-journalism illustrates very neatly how difficult many contemporary commentators find it to separate their internalised assumptions about what 'revolution' ought to mean from an effort to analyse real situations. Headlined 'Libya: The Revolution That Never Was?', its opening sentence ends with the statement that, after Gaddafi's death 'another Arab Spring revolution appeared to be secure.' Going on to discuss in depth the actual destabilised condition of the country 'after the revolution', the author wonders 'Libya's revolution has splintered, to be sure, but how might it be reconstituted?'Ultimately, the piece appears to posit that 'Libya's 2011 revolution produced more problems than solutions' in a fragmented and tribalised polity: 'The revolution only introduced more hardship and violence than ever before.' Yet the ultimate conclusion swings drastically away from this pragmatic evaluation: 'Thus, Libya's revolution remains postponed - its destiny in the hands of those who might envision and create an authentic, historical alternative.'A revolution that both was, and is not yet... A contradiction strikingly typical of the contemporary discourse.