Iran fights back: There is No They

From Twitter user abbaspour

Millions are rallying in Tehran, defying an official ban, truncheons and bullets in their opposition to the Iranian regime's hardliners. The police are threatening an "iron fist" in crushing the uprising. Word has just come minutes ago that protesters are being fired on. Green Revolution hackers are fighting back against the regime, while the state itself is splitting, with parliament and some clerics breaking out to call for investigations and reform. 

There's some word that as the crowd has grown, riot police have begun to back down. The entire situation is chaotic, and it's impossible to truly tell what's going on. What we've got right now is raw information, the inside guts of a revolution in progress.

But Mousavi doesn't seem to be backing down and neither do the huge numbers of supporters who have come out. The riot police, Revolutionary Guard and militias have been bloodying them for two days solid now and the momentum seems to be growing. This may go down in history too as the moment Twitter truly came into its own. Andrew Sullivan's demonstrating why he's still one of the best damn bloggers out there (and is facing a digital attack for it).

Just days ago, neoconservatives were publicly yearning for an Ahmadinejad win, hoping that it will give them an casus belli to live out their war fantasies by seeing Iran bombed into nothing. The extremists and bloodthirsty on all sides need each other to feed; they need their enemies to give them an excuse for horror and control.

They could receive no greater a rebuke than the masses of Iranians who have taken to the street and refused to go home. Cultures may vary radically, but this is proof again that within every one exists a yearning for more freedom, a desire to rebel against oppression that is as old and primal as our own flesh.

Tyrants may manage to press it down, for a time. But it can never be denied.

Look. There is no monolithic "other" thirsting to slay us in our sleep. There is no Great Satan, here or across any sea. Look past, and see only people. In the regime: scared, weak people, now in fear for their own paltry power and authority. 

And who, on the streets, has shaken that power to its core? Students, grandmothers, workers. Other people, come for their due.

There is No They.

Comments

[m1k3y]

I think my favourite part about all this is that not only are the Green Revolutionaries using Twitter, YouTube etc to communicate, but that the "outside world" are thus watching in real-time and doing everything they can to help.

The power of a re-tweet of IP addresses etc, even if you're not being followed by someone in Iran. It shows total solidarity with the cause of true freedom.

Also, it's further proof that Twitter etc are where we go for real-time news now (esp. giving what I'm hearing about CNNs coverage of this).

[David Forbes]

It has helped with providing contact, word and major support outside the country. An example of how these mediums, if harnessed well, are particularly useful for fighting crackdowns.

Twitter has really come into its own for raw news info. I've got a split opinion of the "mainstream" media. Cable news and some of the main channels have utterly failed, while the BBC, NPR and parts of PBS have reminded the world of why professionalism still counts.

[m1k3y]

Agreed.. I woke up early enough today to catch an excellent roundup on the local world news show.