(no subject)
I assume everyone on my friends list is generally aware of what's happening in Iran, and I know misshallelujah, htenywg and sheraccoon have all made broad and informative posts.
It's terrible to think that as I sit on my bed in my room typing this, there are people screaming, people fighting, people risking death. They have had their elections stolen and they are taking it back, and that commands an immensity of respect.
It also evokes an immensity of sorrow.
The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”
Source: Roger Cohen's article, NYTimes
I wanted to cry when I read that. Days, hours, minutes from now, that police commander may be dead. Perhaps he is dead or wounded already. And there will be more sorrow in the world, as his wife and children grieve him.
There is so much carnage in the world today that it is ridiculously easy to ignore - literally, ridiculously. How can we - the rest of the world - ignore such suffering in good conscience? Such pain, such fear, and such longing for freedom? Some answer that there is too much carnage to think about every single incident the way it deserves to be considered and felt. If we were to detail all the agony that is experienced in the world - if we were to try and empathise with every single person - that anguish would overwhelm us as well. Wallowing in their troubles does not solve it and only cripples our own will to live.
True enough. But that should not be an excuse for ignorance. Iran is in the throes of revolution, a grand event from a historical standpoint, and yet as the example above shows, the fact of the matter is that we're all people, somestimes misguided but simple people who have dreams and a unique if brief life. Easy enough to say that there is too much carnage in the world for us to care about it all, but still, we should care about as much as we can. Iran is something we should all care about. I read an argument the other day that said that what topples regimes today is the internal drive for change, and this happens when people inside a closed regime connect increasingly with the standards of the outside world. This is happening through platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the Internet in general, and because of that, I'd like to make as many people on my f-list as aware of the situation as possible.
I don't think their revolution will end in success. Moussavi is ready for martyrdom, and given that Ayatollah Khameini has made his stand, I doubt that he will back down. There will be more death and there will be repression. But I do think that they will succeed. If there is anything uplifting about the history of our world, if there is anything uplifting in reading about the atrocities that people have faced, it's that these atrocities have been faced down. Dictatorships have been forced to their knees. Dictatorships can hold power and they can wield force, but if the lot of the people does not improve, as people become more educated, as people become more connected with each other, we yearn towards freedom and so she stretches her hands to us.
Our awareness alone changes nothing. We can only watch as the tear gas and the electric batons and the blood ring in the changes on the streets of Tehran. But knowledge of the situation is necessary. It's a moral obligation to witness this suffering. To understand the price that some people have to pay, and their bravery in being willing to do so.
It's terrible to think that as I sit on my bed in my room typing this, there are people screaming, people fighting, people risking death. They have had their elections stolen and they are taking it back, and that commands an immensity of respect.
It also evokes an immensity of sorrow.
The Iranian police commander, in green uniform, walked up Komak Hospital Alley with arms raised and his small unit at his side. “I swear to God,” he shouted at the protesters facing him, “I have children, I have a wife, I don’t want to beat people. Please go home.”
Source: Roger Cohen's article, NYTimes
I wanted to cry when I read that. Days, hours, minutes from now, that police commander may be dead. Perhaps he is dead or wounded already. And there will be more sorrow in the world, as his wife and children grieve him.
There is so much carnage in the world today that it is ridiculously easy to ignore - literally, ridiculously. How can we - the rest of the world - ignore such suffering in good conscience? Such pain, such fear, and such longing for freedom? Some answer that there is too much carnage to think about every single incident the way it deserves to be considered and felt. If we were to detail all the agony that is experienced in the world - if we were to try and empathise with every single person - that anguish would overwhelm us as well. Wallowing in their troubles does not solve it and only cripples our own will to live.
True enough. But that should not be an excuse for ignorance. Iran is in the throes of revolution, a grand event from a historical standpoint, and yet as the example above shows, the fact of the matter is that we're all people, somestimes misguided but simple people who have dreams and a unique if brief life. Easy enough to say that there is too much carnage in the world for us to care about it all, but still, we should care about as much as we can. Iran is something we should all care about. I read an argument the other day that said that what topples regimes today is the internal drive for change, and this happens when people inside a closed regime connect increasingly with the standards of the outside world. This is happening through platforms like Facebook and Twitter and the Internet in general, and because of that, I'd like to make as many people on my f-list as aware of the situation as possible.
I don't think their revolution will end in success. Moussavi is ready for martyrdom, and given that Ayatollah Khameini has made his stand, I doubt that he will back down. There will be more death and there will be repression. But I do think that they will succeed. If there is anything uplifting about the history of our world, if there is anything uplifting in reading about the atrocities that people have faced, it's that these atrocities have been faced down. Dictatorships have been forced to their knees. Dictatorships can hold power and they can wield force, but if the lot of the people does not improve, as people become more educated, as people become more connected with each other, we yearn towards freedom and so she stretches her hands to us.
Our awareness alone changes nothing. We can only watch as the tear gas and the electric batons and the blood ring in the changes on the streets of Tehran. But knowledge of the situation is necessary. It's a moral obligation to witness this suffering. To understand the price that some people have to pay, and their bravery in being willing to do so.