The Revolution will not be televised...
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
-Gil Scott Heron, 1974
Heron wrote his song in the 70’s and it was in reference to the black power movement. But it’s still relevant. It’s about empowerment, transparency, and ultimately, equality. But it's also about rising up from within, and not waiting to be told to protest. To find that fortitude, and courage to stand up when the act of doing so is a risk in and of itself.
This revolution will not be televised. It will be a link on facebook. It will be a twitter posting. It will not be classic journalism, and because of that, the Iranian government, notoriously controlling and paranoid, will not be able to suppress the will of the people. Journalists are already shut out, but this hasn't stopped the free flow of information out of Iran.
There are no borders. Not anymore. Cell phones, the all-in-one device that they have become, are now the revolutionary’s tool. The videos and pictures coming out of Iran are from the people themselves, and it is unflinchingly honest, and disturbing. What true journalism should be. The people who have finally reached a boiling point, enraged by the suspicious elections, and emboldened by the regime’s disturbing response.
But I think we need to be cautious about who we want to lead Iran. It appears, at least when you read one perspective on TIME.com:
Perhaps he isn’t exactly what we want in Iran, at least as far as US interests go. But these protests have turned from disputing election results into calling for a change of minds, of regimes.
This may be the end of the theocracy which started 30 years ago.
Perhaps there is a little sense of irony in that 30 years ago the people rose up to depose the Shah, installed by the US, and now they are rising up to (hopefully) overturn the government installed by themselves.
It appears to me to always be the better option to allow people to find their own way, instead of, as some leading Republicans might have you believe, sticking our hand in the pot to stir things around. As Christanne Amanpour said the other day: “what happens now?…the genie can not be put back in the bottle…”.
Indeed. And we need to let them find their own path. Instead of giving the Iranian elite fodder to feed their US paranoia, we have stayed relatively quiet. Thankfully. Some may argue that we didn’t stay silent when the Berlin Wall fell. But that was a situation where after decades of negotiating and discourse, a failed government finally collapsed under it’s own weight. If you want to follow the Soviet example further, it didn’t quite work out in the 50’s when we ran our mouths in support of Hungary. And they were emboldened by our words, and subsequently crushed. It wasn't time.
Let’s not make the same mistake. Let the Iranians find their own way. There is no way we would get involved if things get ugly over there, as they appear to be headed. Iran has a long history of suspicion towards America. Let’s not feed into that. Let’s give the Iranian theocracy enough rope to hang themselves, so to speak.
The Iranian people will march and continue to post videos, and pictures, and blogs. And the government will continue to suppress. At some point it will become completely obvious that it is the will of the people, and not some devious plot devised by the CIA, that the theocracy of Iran has reached an end. Hopefully with less bloodshed than these past few days would indicate.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.
-Gil Scott Heron, 1974
Heron wrote his song in the 70’s and it was in reference to the black power movement. But it’s still relevant. It’s about empowerment, transparency, and ultimately, equality. But it's also about rising up from within, and not waiting to be told to protest. To find that fortitude, and courage to stand up when the act of doing so is a risk in and of itself.
This revolution will not be televised. It will be a link on facebook. It will be a twitter posting. It will not be classic journalism, and because of that, the Iranian government, notoriously controlling and paranoid, will not be able to suppress the will of the people. Journalists are already shut out, but this hasn't stopped the free flow of information out of Iran.
There are no borders. Not anymore. Cell phones, the all-in-one device that they have become, are now the revolutionary’s tool. The videos and pictures coming out of Iran are from the people themselves, and it is unflinchingly honest, and disturbing. What true journalism should be. The people who have finally reached a boiling point, enraged by the suspicious elections, and emboldened by the regime’s disturbing response.
But I think we need to be cautious about who we want to lead Iran. It appears, at least when you read one perspective on TIME.com:
Perhaps he isn’t exactly what we want in Iran, at least as far as US interests go. But these protests have turned from disputing election results into calling for a change of minds, of regimes.
This may be the end of the theocracy which started 30 years ago.
Perhaps there is a little sense of irony in that 30 years ago the people rose up to depose the Shah, installed by the US, and now they are rising up to (hopefully) overturn the government installed by themselves.
It appears to me to always be the better option to allow people to find their own way, instead of, as some leading Republicans might have you believe, sticking our hand in the pot to stir things around. As Christanne Amanpour said the other day: “what happens now?…the genie can not be put back in the bottle…”.
Indeed. And we need to let them find their own path. Instead of giving the Iranian elite fodder to feed their US paranoia, we have stayed relatively quiet. Thankfully. Some may argue that we didn’t stay silent when the Berlin Wall fell. But that was a situation where after decades of negotiating and discourse, a failed government finally collapsed under it’s own weight. If you want to follow the Soviet example further, it didn’t quite work out in the 50’s when we ran our mouths in support of Hungary. And they were emboldened by our words, and subsequently crushed. It wasn't time.
Let’s not make the same mistake. Let the Iranians find their own way. There is no way we would get involved if things get ugly over there, as they appear to be headed. Iran has a long history of suspicion towards America. Let’s not feed into that. Let’s give the Iranian theocracy enough rope to hang themselves, so to speak.
The Iranian people will march and continue to post videos, and pictures, and blogs. And the government will continue to suppress. At some point it will become completely obvious that it is the will of the people, and not some devious plot devised by the CIA, that the theocracy of Iran has reached an end. Hopefully with less bloodshed than these past few days would indicate.
The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.
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