Tonight I was watching the latest video footage of the bloodbath in Egypt – this time infantry fighting vehicles using their guns to shoot at demonstrators. What caught my attention was that in the corner of the video you could see two Egyptian men standing with smartphones making their own video recording of the massacre taking place under their window. See for yourself:
And I thought to myself “at least this massacre will be well documented!“
These smartphones are truly a powerful counter-propaganda tool. Not only can they make rather decent videos by just pressing a button, but they can also instantly upload them to the web, or send the footage to friends, or even stream it live. And they are literally *everywhere*. This kind of distributed video-capability is practically impossible to defeat because it is simply too ubiquitous. I have read that even in the DPRK more and more people are using (highly illegal) smartphones.
Of course, a military junta can shut down the Internet (locally, at least), search for smartphones, jam their signals, etc. A techno-savvy regime like the one in the USA or Israel could do something even far more effective: it could remotely disable the video camera on all smartphones in a specific areas or even remotely destroy all smartphones. But that would be very *very* conspicuous and, besides, it would also be a PR disaster. So I don’t mean to suggest that the “smartphone threat” cannot be successfully tackled by a sophisticated regime, but in most cases this would be a difficult task, at least in most countries out there.
And then, there is the relative blessing of having the truly sicko thugs, like the Wahabi crazies in Chechnia and Syria, who love to film their own atrocities. The footage of the horrors committed and video-recorded by the Chechen Wahabis truly mobilized the Russian public opinion behind Putin’s 2nd war to smash the insurgency. Likewise, in Syria, thanks to all the bloodcurdling atrocities filmed by the Wahabis themselves, the public opinion gradually shifted against the insurgency.
Bottom line: CNN, al-Jazeera, the BBC and the rest of them can continue to spew their lies, millions of people with cheap smartphones in their pockets can now prove that they are lying and show the facts on the ground if not on TV then, at least, on the Internet.
The Internet plus the smartphone are a fantastic combination of technologies which have political repercussions which their creators (DARPA, IT corporations) never saw coming. Sure, the bad guys are now very *very* busy trying to get all that back under their control, but, hopefully, the good guys – us – will remain a step ahead of them.
The Saker
in the communist manifesto, marx describes how revolutions tend to occur when the forces of production are fettered by the relations of production.
we can see something similar happening with the internet and smartphones. they are truly liberating technologies, allowing for direct democracy and participatory politics (and much more), but are constrained and fettered by the social relations of capital.
the true potential of these technologies will only be realized through a socialist revolution — when we abolish classes and the private ownership of production and create a democratically planned economy for human needs and ecological sustainability on a global scale.
on DIY internet, see this interesting article:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/mesh-internet-privacy-nsa-isp
the problem with this article, though, is that it doesn’t consider the question of social revolution, and instead looks to local, technological solutions.
@Anonymous:in the communist manifesto, marx describes how revolutions tend to occur when the forces of production are fettered by the relations of production.
Very interesting and highly relevant point. In fact, I think that Marxism urgently needs to be revived, if not necessarily as a prescriptive ideology, then at the very least as the most comprehensive critical analysis of capitalism available.
Right now I am trying to assemble a collection of lecture, presentations and even courses on Marxism and Leninism in the following languages: English, Russian, French and Spanish. If you know of any audiobooks, YouTube videos of courses or any other good audio (not written) material available for free download please let me know.
Thanks!!
The Saker