Freedom was once the absence of chains and manacles and the end of the slave culture and economy of humans. Mr. Lincoln even brought some to America. Freedom has broken some chains of European hatreds and African genocide. Check out Hotel Rwanda for a view of evil and of the goodness that we call "righteous".
Freedom is a fragile, butterfly wisp of an idea that is so easily thwarted that the butterflies are always in danger of dropping from the sky. The Lady carries a hefty torch to make sure there is a place for Liberty to stand. Authority sits squarely on his throne, looking grim. Justice is blind, it is said.
Now we have the blogosphere and the opportunity for individuals to make their thoughts known to the world from blog, website, and video — welcome to the vlogosphere, grab a podcast. The question of “globalization” became an answer rather than a question when protesters all had cell phones and Internet connections.
The same altruistic young minds that told us the "revolution" of the 1960s would free our souls and bring the Viet Nam debacle to a close now say that access to a spider web of electronic impulses will maintain freedom in the 21st century. All those words and ideas and pictures floating free could even control an out-of-control administration in places like Washington, Beijing or Moscow.
Why is it not happening that way?
The Iranian blogosphere is not functioning to protect the freedom of the people from censorship by the government. James Smith and Anne Barnard of The Boston Globe wrote of the problems of Internet censorship in that unstable place. The problems with expressing oneself on the Internet there have become sufficient to make Farsi (Persian Farsi, I have been told) suddenly one of the ten most prevalent languages in which blogs are written.
Alireza Samiei is one of the Iranian bloggers said to be pushing the envelope of governmental tolerance or intolerance on the Internet. He writes (his day job) of banking and insurance issues then spends his nights writing about socio-political issues in his country. The governments is not being tolerant.
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Article comments
1 - cargye
Citizen journalists are indeed the best hope for freedom in repressive countries like Iran where there is no press freedom. But increasingly the bloggers, too, are in grave danger. I have asked Michael Dell to champion citizen journalists with an international freedom award. for more on this, see my blog
2 - Elvira Black
Howard, this is an important issue indeed. I remember how dismayed I was to find that major search engines had compromised with China to censor some sites, but I suppose the money involved was too much to resist. Perhaps even a bowlderized internet is better than none at all for these oppressed countries.
On a more trivial note, the other day I tried to revive my account with BlogExplosion, which I joined long ago but rarely utilized. Apparently they have changed owners, and my blog was rejected because of the "profanity" in the title (Shithouse rat). That was a bit of a shock to me--though they welcomed me to resubmit my site if I changed the title. I think not....