The Power of the Social Media and What We Can Learn from Egypt
posted by Stage Name | January 30, 2011
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IcerocketThe choice of the Egyptian government to shut down the entire internet is no small thing. Certainly there were social ramifications, but news reports don't lend the proper to weight to how absolutely revolutionary this event is. Egypt is not some third-world, we-just-got-on-the-net kind of a country. They are on par technologically, and in many ways more advanced than most of the western world. Egypt is also an important hinge point for international business as most of the business coming in from the African continent and middle east to the far east and the EU comes through Egypt. This being the case, the shutting down of cybernetical capabilities has heavy economic implications as well.
Why would the Egyptian government risk the detrimental economic implications just because a few overly-verbose radicals were posting stuff on social media websites? Because the population rallied around the idea, they CAME TOGETHER collectively and used the social media outlets as tools to initiate a massive change. What change will occur? We are in the process of watching that drama unfold, but I think this event speaks highly to the power we have has individuals through organizing, communication and communion to radically transform the planet that we are rapidly destroying.
For most of the members to Evolver, I'm probably preaching to the choir. Deep down to the core of our being, the human organism knows that we are in the process of a deep evolution. The realization of our overconsumption in the western world on a large scale could represent the cusp of a massive tranfomation in how we interact as relational beings to one another and to the planet that we inhabit. I think, Westerners do realize this problem, but they are left with the conceptions and weight of what may be at stake, rolling around in the outer-layers of subconscious experience. Hence, gut feelings and intuitive urges get dismissed as nerves or passing anxiety because we are repeatedly told that these modes of experience are separate and unrelated to normative, everyday experience. To me this represents the sleeping potion that is doled out to our population en masse via distractionary media--cognitive dissonance on a very large scale. I recently wrote an editorial on this subject: (http://baytownsun.com/opinion/letters/article_47032aa0-2831-11e0-a054-00...). Yes, social media in many ways has served as one of the big sleepers that is preventing a massive awakening in consciousness globally. But I think Egypt's situation demonstrates that these media can be used to spark awakening when given the proper handling.
The power we wield as individuals if we band together as a community can topple even the most corrupt system. It is through communion, understanding, and conversation that such progress is sparked.
Nothing but love.
Comments
Well Said!
— Jan 31, 2011
Our task needs a central message to bring us together. In Egypt, it is simple and powerful, they want a democracy. We have many issues at hand in this country and we have not yet developed a centralized message to bring us all together. We have the fights for gay rights, legalizing marijuana, immigration, healthcare, our monetary system, the environment, and the list goes on. I think it is safe to say we all stand on the same side of these issues yet we need a central message to bring us all together. The right has gained momentum and organization with the tea party movement while the left remains spread out and divided on its various fights. We need a centralizing message that will not only bring the left together but will appeal to the rational individuals on the right. As they say "Together we stand".
Love to All,
Brian
You have an excellent point,
— Feb 01, 2011
You have an excellent point, but I believe rallying around a centralized message which is by nature retalliatory against the "right" can only lead to further separation when what we truly need is integration. Perhaps we could rally around that, instead of alienating others and making it a fight.
"Among animals, I am the lion." -- Lord Krishna
wiki-tweet-flashmob-ism
— Feb 01, 2011
We've seen facebook and Twitter play a pivotal role in both Wiki-leaks and these uprisings and revolutions this month. In both examples attempts to shut down, stamp-out or unplug has had zero effect on the momentum once things get rolling.
This isn't your commissar's revolution, no party paper or central committee to manage the message or manifesto. It's down to everyone in the street vs those in power.
6 Tektite Serpent
----------------------------
"That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly" - Thomas Paine
"We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing" - Seneca
Youre the man, dude
— Feb 01, 2011
ok, I'm getting behind you. What should we do first? need a suggestion? allow me to suggest a psychedelic liberation approach which would rally the youth and make all other problems we are fighting obsolete. You would have to have been solving these problems in your life in order to know that psychedelics make healthcare problems and monetary problems such as greed and inefficiency OBSOLETE. God damnit! everybody get behind ME and it will all be ok!
we could start an army and bomb the gaza strip with lsd and just
— Feb 01, 2011
tell everybody to shut the fuck up while we get the new infrstructure built, i.e. humanistically sound business.
here: let me explain
— Feb 01, 2011
I am committed to thinking outside the box, you just commit to not letting me fly completely off the handle, and I will work this out with my excellent communication skills and superior philosophical ideas.
I can create jobs that multiply
— Feb 01, 2011
and reduce costs that shouldn't exist, quite frankly..
I have internet companies..
— Feb 01, 2011
inventions that need companies..
I have watchdog companies that have agents who dont need to leave their desks to look for work...
I have smear companies....
anti-ad companies
I have my own brand of music, hahaahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahh
a smear company
— Feb 01, 2011
simply burns old crops. they create a wag the dog type situation where society gets its heartstring pulled in a certain direction which makes a new product seem more necessary than it would have otherwise. However, since I'm going to be accountable for all this madness, I'm only going to clear ways for my ideas, which are very general. for instance: I put out a smear for dove soap, not picking on you dove, but you know, its just business, nothing personal..
and I happen to use soaps that dont need fragrances or other shite, and I create a market for dr. bronners by twisting peoples arms off. tit for tat hehe and then if there are other bronners, so be it. If they can make a better more effectively natural, and karmically pure soap. thus stabilizing the economy by stabilizing supply and demand itself. Anybody else think of that? My theory also applies to the healthcare system as a whole, so if anybody's listening...
everybody needs therapy and have an inflated sense of need
— Feb 01, 2011
lets start there: Psychedelics, See?
Freedom Isn't Free, Redux
— Feb 01, 2011
The Internet has empowered us. It is the next driver of human evolution. We continue to be stunned and awed when we see what a force we are when we are bound together in this electric atmosphere. It is a hint of the radical freedom and endless connection that we imagine our soul's true state to be. And we are seeing, in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, what a catalyst it can be for change.
But radical freedoms are never truly won on this planet full of hungry ghosts. The exhilarating feeling we experience scares those who depend on oppression to survive. The Internet can just as easily be co=opted by the powers-that-be and turned into 24/7, innocuous entertainment, like TV and radio. It can be used as a tool of co-ercion. It can be used to censor, and it can be used to spy, of which dissidents in China are well aware.
You must be vigilant in demanding the Internet stay free. Those who can progam should keep their skills sharp. Laws that seek to shackle it must be protested. Fat Cats who seek to make their bundle off of it should be thwarted, so that it will remain in reach for the poorest citizens. Never take this delicious freedom for granted.
Protests across the U.s. today
— Feb 26, 2011
Please stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin, the U.S., and the world...
Tom Morello live from the Madison protests:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgIjcp6FxBI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
