3rd
Disconnected Americans
I found this insightful and provocative comment in a discussion about the role of western technology in the Egyptian revolution:
Americans are possibly the most disconnected population on the planet. A very high percentage of Americans are wealthy enough to purchase the reality they want and the rest have a full selection of illusions to indulge in at all economic levels. I cannot imagine what kind of an immediate threat it would take to get the collective attention of the American people to focus together.
By the way, I think that western technology was vital to the North African revolutions: if the world hadn’t seen YouTube videos of Mohammed Bouazizi and if AlJazeera hadn’t retransmitted these images, using western technology, then these revolutions would not have happened, at least not when they did.
Governments attempt to keep opponents in ignorance. I remember marching against the invasion of Iraq by G.W.Bush in Raleigh, NC. There were about 8,000 of us. There was no peep in the media of our march or of the fact that many thousands of people had marched around the country at the same time. The internet told us about these other people and helped us realize that we were not alone. I believe that social media had this effect with Tunisians, Egyptians, and many other citizens of the Arab countries.
