You Say You Want A Revolution?

Then take a look at Iran. Is it a true revolution, only time will tell I guess, but a few things that are going on there are just amazing to me and have me absolutely captivated. First of all, let me say that I generally write in Word and then C&P over, right now I'm typing straight in mostly because this really struck me as something...inspiring, I guess. The point of saying that is: please forgive the typos and and random thoughtness that might appear over the course of this entry.

The first topic I want to hit on here is the way the world, and by "world" I of course mean me, is finding out the details of what is happening in Iran right now. The news as I've seen it is pretty generic and benign. Stories like "Unrest in Iranian Capital After Election," "Rioting Continues in Tehran," and the sort. Random thought: "Unrest" is an odd choice of term, isn't it? I know it's used frequently now but if you look at what is going on there, "unrest" is about as accurate as "pillow fighting." Anyway, back to the point, the news stories that I've seen (admittedly few), have been sterile. Take a look at these Twitter posts from persiankiwi who is in Tehran:

confirmed - tehran uni dorm 17 seriously injured. no deaths reported yet. will post link.

have no more news from uni dorm. i must go to pray now. today we will need god.

dawn is breaking. can hear prayers from mosques.

occasionally hear gunshots in distance. no idea where. seems to be all over city. just like 79.

everytime i press refresh, system cuts out. no incoming at all. crazy.

internet very slow. dialup only. no facebook, no bbc, cnn nothing. even arab stations blocked.

have lost mobile contact in university dorm. cannot recoonect. cannot get info.

moussavi demo at 4pm this afternoon in 19 cities announced. expect millions. this will not stop.

4am and people still on streets and rooftops shouting 'death to the dictator'.

students being killed in tehran uni dorm in amirabad right now. this must stop, ahmadinejad must stop.

apparently there is running battles in tehran uni right now. i can hear shooting on the phone line.

gov trying to arrest all people suspected in organising demo tomorrow and strike on tuesday.

i have just been told that moussavihas called national strike on tuesday.

i am hearing that students beaten severly at tehran uni tonight. am speaking with someone on the scene now on mobile.

i am not sure if students killed in tehran uni dorm. unconfirmed that there was shooting heard there. no students seen.

tomorrow if army come we will greet them with roses

All the above posts were made over about a 2 hour period today (6/14/09) but they went on all day, all similar in vein to those above, varying in intensity. I can't stop reading these posts. This is what the news is unable to capture, this is human conflict at its most human. The regime in Iran is filtering all press, and an earlier post from persiankiwi stated that they (m or f is unknown) had found an unfiltered internet dial-up line and that is the source of all the posts they have made.

So what's the big deal? I guess what I find fascinating aside from the humanity that oozes through these posts is the nature of the posts themselves. There is a song from 1970 by a guy named Gil Scott-Heron called "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and it's a line that has persisted for a while. What is going on in Iran, is not being televised, it's being tweeted. This is an amazing shift in history. At least to me.

The other thing that stands out for me, and I've already touched on this, is the humanity. I don't just mean the level of human emotion, but the out and out humanity. Take a look at the Twitter posts again. Let me just restate a few:

i must go pray now. today we will need god.

this must stop

tomorrow if army come we will greet them with roses (this is beautiful to me)

I've also seen two cases, so there are for sure more, where riot troops who were sent in break up protests and were doing so brutally before being thrown from their motorcycle or overwhelmed by the crowd, were sheltered and protected by the people they had been beating. This is amazing. This is humanity. This is the divine in the human. It just impresses the shit outta me, it really, really does. How do you get this from people? I have come to expect the opposite, absolute brutality, as a default and I'm not naive, I know it's happening, but it's not always happening, and in an odd way, I guess it gives me hope.

(c) Carl T. Mealie, 2009