Well that's bright, isn't it?
Posted 17 June 09 by Scott AndrewsToday’s RSS feeds have delivered an unusually compelling collection of links today, to blogs and articles.
“I feel that I can understand why Tank Man risked his life to stand in front of the tank column. I have less of a sense of why the tank commander decided to stop…. The thing is, Tank Commander is far more dangerous than Tank Man. Tank Man can simply be shot; most seem to believe that Tank Man was later executed, far out of sight of the international media. The regime survives if Tank Man dies, even if the death of Tank Man isn’t the optimal outcome. The regime dies, however, if Tank Commander refuses to run over Tank Man. Eisenstein used the Odessa Steps to demonstrate the corruption of the Czarist regime, but the regime didn’t die until the soldiers refused to shoot the demonstrators.”
And that, in a nutshell, is why the Burma regime persists. Burma is cram full of Tank Men, but Tank Commanders just keep shooting them.
“The Mullahs won’t go quietly. They may go down fighting. But the demographics ensure Ahmadinejad’s side will lose in the long-term. Another 70 percent of Iranians are under the age of thirty, and the vast majority are growing up in the cities, linked via Twitter and Facebook to a world beyond. They have developed huge subcultures of bloggers and rappers expressing their rage at the “morality police” who monitor their behaviour at every turn. While the hardcore Islamist constituency – the old and the rural – shrivels, the reformist constituency is swelling. There’s only so long you can suppress an angry, wired population much younger than you. IPods beat i-slamism in the end.”
I was discussing this with wifey just the other night. Has the internet made the rise of new totalitarian regimes impossible? Are we living through the final dying gasps of totalitarianism, as the last hangers on fall in the face of the freedom of information that the internet brings?
The State, in abstract, seems to believe that the power of IT will enable greater social control, but time and again they are proven wrong. A big chunk of ‘net goes dark every time China clamps down in Tibet; it does the same in Burma. So far this has allowed the regimes to achieve their short-term goals. But they tried the same trick this week in Iran, and this time Twitter – and crucially its accessible API – proved impossible to contain.
The ‘net is ADAPTING. And it’s doing it too quickly for the dictators to control it. It’s hard for me to admit, but that makes me feel – whisper it quietly – optimistic.
Just look at the Green Dam controversy that’s blown up in China in the last few days.
[UPDATE: While I was typing that, this story broke, which highlights exactly what I’m saying. We’re now living in a world where a geek from San Francisco can post a blog that literally helps topple dictators. It means Austin Heap is as crucial to the front line struggle as any Tank Man. God, Phil Ochs would have LOVED this.
“Most of the reactions from Iran have almost made me cry. Having somebody tell me that their family thanks me – that’s the power of the internet. I haven’t been in the middle of an outpouring like this, ever. And it makes me incredibly proud of the IT community,” said Mr Heap.
And that reminds me that yesterday Boing Boing posted this fascinating account from Tim Shey of how he was able to get involved in the revolution even though he was 32,000 feet above the American midwest.
“Plugged in and reblogging photos coming out of Tehran and seeing people on the ground then reblogging my posts, I felt like a participant.”]
And finally, as a laugh out loud brilliant demonstration of the power of a free press, BBC Radio Sheffield’s interview with Doncaster’s ‘English Democrat’ mayor is a thing of wonder and beauty.
“Peter, all I’m asking is how you’re going to deliver on your election manifesto?”
Listen here, and prepare to cheer.
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