tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386077914312449748.post5234772399045041048..comments2024-03-29T12:15:13.832+01:00Comments on Defence and Freedom: Trajan on the revolts in Tunisia (?)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386077914312449748.post-27708702515709178732011-09-01T11:53:14.886+02:002011-09-01T11:53:14.886+02:00Politics is in large part an art of spreading ones...Politics is in large part an art of spreading ones ideas to others, and so any gathering of people has an inherent political potential. This is well known, and it's common practice to outlaw unregulated gatherings of people in dictatorships.<br /><br />I think the role of the social media in the events in egypt has been primarely that of an trusted news source in an enviroment where such is lacking. This is a powerful thing for the opposition to any government to posses, and so an important thing to mention. Additionally, since the western news media recognices it as essentially doing the same thing that many of them dreamt of doing when they started workin the biz there is a tendency to view it in a romantic light.<br /><br />So the role of social media is somewhat overwrought, certainly facebook and twitter hasn't been enough to bing down Teheran, nor later Brixton. Altough in the former case there seems to be more IT expertise working to help Iran (googles encryption has been defeted twice at least, and there has been reports of systematic man-in-the-middle attacks against facebook) than it seems Egypt could muster. The latter case (the vandalism in England) seems to have been a youth rebellion in the lower class, and as such wasn't so much about clamour for reform as it was about not being bored by doing something exciting with your friends.Rettawnoreply@blogger.com