Posted on 06/19/2009 11:06:28 AM PDT by lewisglad
In Chicago in 1968, anti-war protesters chanted "The Whole World Is Watching."
They were talking about television cameras that showed police beatings on the evening news.
More than 40 years later, with a massive movement aimed at reversing election results and possibly even toppling a regime in Iran, online networking is instantly sharing protesters' actions.
And the whole world is watching.
"That wasn't true in Chicago," Clay Shirky, a consultant and New York University instructor who focuses on the social impact of the Internet, said of the slogan. "Now, it's true."
From the moment Iranians took to the streets of Tehran to protest results of an election they believe President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole, electronic media has been a part of the story. Demonstrators made plans by text message -- when they could get around reported government interference with their signals.
Web sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube were used to organize, drum up support and share images of street protests -- and the brutal retribution that sometimes followed -- with a world hungry for news. As the Iranian government began limiting the freedom of traditional news outlets to report in the country, citizen journalists became crucial in showing scenes from the movement.
It's the latest step forward in a media technology march that has included stops at the Spanish-American War, when telegraphs wired updates to the world, and the Vietnam, when television first gave viewers a daily look at how the conflict was going.
The growing number of people becoming Web-savvy makes the online networks more powerful.
It's not just the half-dozen geeks that used to be part of the HAM radio network, but millions of people have figured out how to sign up at Facebook and can get to [opposition candidate Mir Hossein] Moussavi's Facebook site.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You can bet Bibi in Israel through the Mossad is.
We may find that the thirst for liberty in that land, who now have examples of people getting much more freedom on either side of them (thanks to Geroge Bush), may perservere despite the Kenyan in the White House.
As it is, for us, we are at a pivotal crossroads in our nation's history. A very steep, very hard and dangerous roads leads one way...an abject fatal precipice leads the other.
I think it is useful when folks around the Globe are waiting for a few words from the “Leader of the Free World” to recall this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cd-AJeJvBE
I guess all he can do is just evoke the words of great leaders, will history record Obama just sitting this out?
As one of those geeks, I can report happily that amateur radio is alive and well, and it is undeserving of such disdain from someone who probably knows nothing about the subject.
Unfreaking believable the amount of people that are in the streets in Tehran!
God Bless them!
What happened to our nation?
I saw a pic of like three Freepers in DC protesting.
Iranians deserve to live in freedom more than we do!
The 1968 Chicago riots did spawn several anarchist organizations: 1) the ACORN payback machine (you’ve heard of the wayback machine); 2) emasculated Chicago Police to the point that Chicago Police is now an oxymoron; 3) lifted the Black Panthers (anarchy’s poster child) to rock star status; 4) inspired Ayers/Dohrn/Weathermen, etc to new heights of terrorism; 5) for a while Chicago joined Detroit (and Egypt) as the largest exodus ever (now Kalifornia is that poster child). I’m sure I’ve left out a few.
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