Apparently i was a journalist in a past life or i should be one now. I don't know and i don't much care. The fact of the matter is that it is distinctly possible that much of America has yet to fully wake up to what has been going on for the past week or so. Lord knows the media has mostly missed the boat. I figured it was high time that i post something to my one avid reader (you know who you are, sorry i haven't written recently but i've been glued to twitter) that sort of gives the most cursory explanation of what's going on.
For starters there are two revolutions. Possibly three if you are prone to notions of Hope and Compassion as i am. The first is strictly owned by the Iranian people. This has been written about extensively but not very completely so it might be a little confusing to those few who might come across this blog in the due diligence of time. The fact that it is entirely an Iranian affair has been made evident by those on the ground, using thousands of tiny voices which collectively have risen into a choir. And what a beautiful choir. Somehow, as if ordained by a higher power, this choir has risen and carried across oceans, through continents, over mountains, forded rivers. It does not recognize borders, governments, or any institution wrought by man because it is man. So many across the world have been enchanted by this song of hope and freedom that we, individually and with the fullness of our humanity, have joined our songs to theirs and now the world is rapt with it.
I can only really write what i have seen and felt. I have seen people who have had such long, well rehearsed wariness between them, pulling down their own barriers and reaching out their experience to help in whatever way they can. Bloggers blog, techies work diligently to create proxy servers, hackers here and there and everywhere find their targets and hack, artists paint, musicians sit at their pianos, poets some in america, some in europe and one on the rooftop of her apartment in Tehran compose elegies.
In the days following 9/11 it was popular throughout the world to state "we are all american." Today we are all Iranian. If the voices of this collective song of humanity do not stir you to tears on occasion i must say that i worry for your sense of humanity. But no worry, the rest of us are looking out for you nonetheless.
The New Media, of course, is the second revolution. Much of the world media has sat idly by on the sidelines throughout most of this, probably well accustomed to the periodic upheavals of the middle east and by their dumbfounded complacency have contributed to the insipid propaganda spewing from State TV. Even in the rare instances where they have been somehow persuaded to ascertain the events in Twitter and Facebook, they have endangered lives in their bullish excuse to get the story out at all costs. Aside from a few journalists: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6544276.ece
and a few others no one has taken the time necessary to understand what the New Media is doing. They seem to drop in to cull the shrapnel of information like a basking shark scooping up his meal, which they then vomit out wholesale without context and without regard.
What they don't understand, or won't understand, is that this is THE game changer. In this moment brave journalists who did not spend years studying journalism, are scooping them relentlessly, not for glory or a headline but because it is survival. To be heard is to be seen, to be seen is to be known, and to be known is to exist. The death of one girl, Neda, who's last breaths were captured by a brave 'journalist' at the possible risk of his own life has brought this into stark contrast with those who would stand by and allow others to tell them what the news is. We know Neda existed. We know she stood peacefully by her father at a rally in Tehran and we have watched her sacrifice. If she can be brave, if the one who captured it was brave, and if all of those people were then it is worth your sacrifice to let these things be known. To do otherwise is cowardice. What are credentials worth when the preservation of them gag you from doing your job effectively?
I'm quite certain the parameters of this New Media will change rapidly from here on out. The government disinformation will get more effecitve (it is already showing signs of doing so) new methods will be found and explored and exploited, but for the moment it is truly new. It has just been born and it's roar has, in my opinion, served vocal notice to the media as it currently stands.
Finally this is Our revolution. The Iranians fight for their freedom, we fight with them and we rise in support and sing, but this may be one of those moments in history where the human race is given another chance at growing up. I have seen these walls fall between us. There are no Iranians, No Americans, No British, No German, no republican, no democrat, no conservative or Labour there are human beings working compassionately for each other, hoping for each other for no other reason than to help, to wish strainingly with every fiber of our being for a better world for everyone. We wish and in realizing our wish we let go, just a little bit, of all of the things that have sadly separated us for so long - those things that 'are in a name' and in a name alone.
Below i'll post a list of links i've gathered so that you can see for yourself what is happening. Hopefully it will inspire you just to look into yourself and admit only that you are human and that as such you hope for the best, and wish them all luck and peace in the future. That's all that it needs.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6544276.ece
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/default.stm
http://iranriggedelect.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-will-participate-in-demonstration.html
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/
Sunday, June 21, 2009
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