This is a class war! It's the last battle! Down with the amataya! Victory for the downtrodden! We are fighting for real democracy! We are all part of a historic moment! I have a confession to make. After listening to all the heated, rousing, inflammatory speeches by some of the red-shirt leaders over the past week, I have become an addict to such stirring oratory.

It all began with the yellow-shirts' rallies. At first, their language was crude and raw. But as their daily outpourings of anger and rage against Thaksin Shinawatra peaked, the linguistic heat was turned on. And the language at public rallies has never the same again.

The red shirts picked up from where their rivals left off. And now, the usual critical terms - corruption, conflict of interest, abuse of power - aren't sufficient to turn the verbal onslaught into a real hit. I can't repeat the new utterances they use on stage to keep the protestors alert, awake and aroused. Most of the provocative words used simply aren't printable here. And that, I suspect, is why I, like lots of news junkies, have become hooked. And I now need my daily fix of verbal outburst to sustain me through the day.

Ordinary political expressions have become too bland, too flat and boring. If you don't scream and shout and raise your fists, you don't attract my attention any more.

Back in May 2008, Thaksin gives Prem a wai when both of them attended the funeral of the mother of Army chief Gen Anupong Paochinda.

Then I started to get serious about following the slogans on the red shirts' stage. I wanted to play a role in "overthrowing the amatayatippatai" - which has been loosely translated as "bureaucratic polity". But I wasn't sure what that means or who they are talking about.

Of course, I know they are saying that General Prem Tinsulanonda, chairman of the Privy Council, must go. But is he the only "amataya"? Perhaps the names of a few other privy councillors have also been mentioned in the heated verbal attacks.

But if the "amatayatippatai" is to be toppled, the whole bureaucracy will have to be dismantled. They can't just pick and choose only a handful. They have roused my fighting spirit. They simply can't go only halfway.

After all, the red speakers on stage were telling us: "This is the last war. Down with the amataya! Long live Thaksin's populism."

Academics have always said that Thai society is inevitably influenced by the patronage system. We the ordinary folks (the "prai", as the red-shirt orators repeatedly tell us) will always have to seek patrons in one form or another.

Then, I asked myself: If the "bureaucratic polity" is finally overthrown, what is the alternative? That leaves only a patronage system under Thaksin Shinawatra.

That's what the red-shirt leaders didn't tell us. They said we were fighting for "real democracy". They said that once the amatayatippatai was gone, we would be "free and independent".

That certainly sounds great: Just follow Thaksin and his lieutenants, then the whole of Thailand will turn into a real democracy instantly. Just like that. It's as miraculous as that.

But are things really so simple? I was reminded that Thaksin was also in cahoots with the amatayas when he was in business, and later in politics. In fact, he couldn't have built up his incredible wealth without his kow-towing to the amatayas in the first place.

All evidence suggests that he broke with them only when he thought General Prem was behind his ouster.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me: If General Prem goes, does it mean the amatayatippai will immediately disappear? Is it really as simple as Thaksin puts it?

But the most disturbing question of all is: What's more dangerous, living with the amatayas or living under Thaksin's patronage?

I know the answer. But how do I wean myself off my addiction to the red shirts' daily stirring rhetoric without some serious withdrawal symptoms.

That, I am afraid, isn't going to be easy, now that blood has been "spilled", although not a single shot has been fired. Whatever the tactics, the country has been badly wounded.