Protest: The Hero

Like most people I have been shook by the recent events in the Ukraine and Venezuela, particularly the footage of government soldiers gunning down their own people. The whole thing is a mess. An absolute mess. Speaking solely as an admittedly ignorant, far off observer, it doesn't matter who started it. What matters is how it finishes.

Images of protestors in the streets are not foreign to our TV sets and twitter accounts of late. What started with the Arab spring has spread across the planet. From anti government protests in Thailand to all out civil war in Syria, even our own "Occupy" movement here at home, the theme remains the same.

The citizen does not trust their government anymore.

And is it coincidence that this loss of faith in our governing bodies comes at a time when information travels around the planet faster and more freely than ever before? It can't be, can it?

If you plot the course of human history, you will notice that all great societal shifts occur at a time where knowledge that was previously hidden from the general public is suddenly distributed in vast quantities. The renaissance is often romanticised as a time of enlightenment and cultural expression, when in reality it was chaos. Especially in the beginning. Inventions like the printed press played a huge part in the redistribution of knowledge, which were  soon followed by wealth and power, creating a vacuum. Most efforts to counter act this vacuum resulted in violence. Check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast for some great examples.

The internet is our printing press. The cat is out of the bag. We've been lied to and man are we pissed.

I had a teacher who predicted this. Fourth period in my final semester of high school was spent in Mike Morrisette's 'World Issues' class. I had all my credits and football season was over, fourth period was the only reason I still came to school. While Mr. Morrisette did his best to enlighten a bunch of small town teenagers, I always left class with the same three themes: Russia can't be trusted, North-Korea is kinda scary, and the internet will be responsible unprecedented political reform around the world.

"Soon everyone around the world is going to see how you kids are living," he would say. "And soon they're gonna want a piece of that life too."

What I don't think anyone saw coming is what an effective tool social media can be to the reformist. There is nowhere to hide now. Everything is exposed, most of it in 1080 high definition pixels. Video of clashes are uploaded instantly, making anyone with an iPhone a battlefield reporter. Networking sites like Twitter are also extremely effective for co-ordinating masses of people on the ground.

Which brings us to a disturbing revelation; the lack of footage, photos and general lack of information coming out of Venezuela. While Kyiv has most of their communications infrastructure operational, internet and cell phone communications have been suppressed in many cities across Venezuela. I spent 3 weeks in Venezuela in 2006. Chavez had just started to intensify his squeeze on the people and even then the streets of Caracas were ripe with political graffiti and small groups of activists either protesting or listening to speeches. There was also what appeared to be a larger than needed military presence, almost a type of posturing. This all points to signs of a regime that planned ahead, and pre meditated murder of one's own citizens is super spooky.

The images coming out of Kyiv have made the international community aware of what's going on and governments around the world have already imposed sanctions. Some will say the international response is not enough, others will argue the opposite but the important fact is that they were informed enough to make a decision in the first place. Venezuela isn't getting that right now.

While the rule of law is essential to a functioning society, it is also important to provide a forum for change. Take the analogy of a dam. If a little bit of water is allowed to trickle through, the dam holds up, society more or less functions. If you do not allow the  water to pass through the dam, the pressure builds, the dam bursts, chaos ensues. When a government opens fire on their own people, the dam is gone, all bets are off.  

This government needs to go.

For every protester that falls at the hands of a corrupt government, he is replaced by 2 more. The fastest way to turn political protest into all out civil war is to kill unarmed civilians. Today's protester will be histories revolutionary. We are now in an era of a worldwide collective knowledge. Knowledge is power, power to the people.