Slashdot Mirror
Best Handset For Freedom?
Father Thomas Dowd writes "The images we are seeing of Iran are being captured on cell phones and the text is being twittered over SMS. Still, the government has some control over the networks, and we are all familiar with fears of wiretap technologies to spy on users. If the cell phone is the new tool of freedom, what would the best 'freedom handset' contain? I'm thinking of a device with an open OS, where each phone could be a router for encrypted messages passed through Bluetooth/WiFi/whatever, thereby totally bypassing physical infrastructures when necessary. Of course, some sort of plausible deniability encryption a la Truecrypt would also be good, in case the secret police catch you with your phone. What else might we need?"
The whole mess in Iran started because the UK overthrew the democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh just because he had the gumption to kick out the British owned oil company and replace it with Iranians.
If you were logged in I would friend you.
After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
In Iran (and many other failed states), no external force is imposing the current brutal government on the Iranians. The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian.
If the democracy advocates attempt to establish a genuine democracy in Iran, violence will occur. Why? A large percentage of the population supports the brutal government and will kill the democracy advocates.
Let us not merely condemn the Iranian government. We must condemn Iranian culture. Its product is the authoritarian state.
We should not intervene in the current crisis in Iran. If the overwhelming majority of Iranians (like the overwhelming majority of Poles) truly support democracy, human rights, and peace with Israel, then a liberal Western democracy will arise -- without any violence. Right now, the overwhelming majority clearly oppose the creation of a liberal Western democracy. The Iranians love a brutal Islamic theocracy.
The Iranians created this horrible society. It is none of our business unless they attempt to develop nuclear weapons. We in the West are morally justified in destroying the nuclear-weapons facilities.
Note that, 40 years ago, Vietnam suffered a worse fate (than the Iranians) at the hands of the Americans. They doused large areas of Vietnam with agent orange, poisoning both the land and the people. Yet, the Vietnamese do not channel their energies into seeking revenge (by, e. g., building a nuclear bomb) against the West. Rather, the Vietnamese are diligently modernizing their society. They will reach 1st-world status long before the Iranians.
Cultures are different. Vietnamese culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranians bear 100% of the blame for the existence of a tyrannical government in Iran. We should condemn Iranian culture and the Iranian people.
Tell that to Barack Obama. He went to the middle east and boldly proclaimed, "I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal". Yes, women in the West can cover their hair. And in the middle east, if they choose not to cover their hair, they will be raped and then stoned to death for adultery. That's the culture, and he wants to pretend that all cultures are equal. Except perhaps for the Israeli culture. They need to give their land up to people who hate them and want to kill them.
Why do they keep this guy around? I mean, is he anything but a washed up philosopher? I don't mind a philosopher. But this is a techno site. Shouldn't he have some modicum of technical understanding? If cell phones act as routers, that means that have to constantly (or at least often) maintain a certain level of transmission. Which means they would have talk-time level of power consumption. For most phones that's too short. The passive mode on phones is so low on power consumption because they are mostly just receiving. Anyone with even a tiny bit of technical knowledge would understand this. How's is this guy kdawson a slashdot editor? C'mon.
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