The Internet: Democracy's Infection Vector?

The Internet: Democracy's Infection Vector?

This column originally appeared in the Williston Observer on February 10, 2011.

Abby, a good friend of mine, sent me a photo this past weekend, a photo that sparked a wide-ranging geopolitical discussion between us. It also illustrated something perhaps best described as the inevitability of change in our fast-evolving digital age.

The photo was from Egypt, and at first glance showed nothing particularly unusual: a large group of Muslims in their iconic prostrate kneeling as they attended to one of the basic tenets of their belief system. Salah, or ritual prayer, is to be performed five times a day - even in the midst of political protest.

What was amazing about the photo, however, was what, or rather who, was in the foreground of the photo: Egyptian Christians surrounding their Muslim countrymen, protecting them from pro-Mubarak forces while vulnerable.

The image reminded me of similar scenes and stories from the United States, of neighbors coming to the aid of Muslims who endured attacks from the small-minded in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. This sort of solidarity is a sign of a culture that values our common humanity enough to overcome the all-too-human distrust of those who are different from us.

Abby said that this photo gave her hope for humanity - not just for the future of Egypt in their time of political turmoil, but for us as a species. That in extreme situations, we can and will come together for the common good.

I share her optimism.

The recent and on-going changes in Tunisia, Egypt, and even Jordan, are all part of a wave of feeling in the Near and Middle East. The feeling that autocracy is not the best way. That despite its flaws, a government founded on true democratic principles is the best way.

Frustratingly, waves of change rush to shore and often quickly retreat. Our own history shows that change can come, but in fits and starts. The equal rights movement had many milestones and setbacks - there were as many Birminghams as there were Rosa Parks. But eventually, over the course of a decade, change did come.

Protesters around the world would do well to follow the example set by Martin Luther King and his fellow warriors for equality. The most important tenet of their movement was peaceful, non-violent protest.

By eschewing violence, they were able to show white America that they were not interested in revenge for the past injustices foisted upon them. They simply wanted to be treated like regular human beings. Though it can mean bloodshed, as seen here and in Egypt as the agents of the status quo fight back, in the long run, non-violence is the best tactic.

The Tiananmen Square protests in China in 1989 seemed to be a turning point for that country, but they turned out not to be - the Communist Party has as firm a grasp as ever in China, though the grasp does seem to have loosened since 1989. This loosening is in large part because of another driving force that Abby and I discussed and which I've already alluded to: The Internet.

That photo of Christians guarding Muslims in prayer? It was sent from an Egyptian's camera phone to Twitter and retweeted across the Internet. It ended up on Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr, and eventually in Abby's mailbox and then mine.

Images are powerful - remember the man who stopped the column of tanks in China. Remember the angry police dogs lurching at marchers in Alabama. And now, praying Muslims in Egypt. Images have always been powerful. But now they have the ability to spread from person to person, country to country, in a matter of seconds.

Imagine a closet Christian in Iran who wants to worship his God in the open, or a Burmese fed up with military patrols on her street, or even a North Korean in line for a rare bag of rice. Imagine what they think when they happen upon such an image. It is not so big a leap to think that these people, who though oppressed have desire for freedom as strong as any of ours, could be the seed that starts a movement in those countries.

The ideal of democracy has been with humanity for millennia. Over time, it has been fragile, sometimes fleeting, susceptible to cults of personality that leverage its draw to entrap people (the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"?). But with the dawning of the digital age, democracy may finally have found its best vector.