So you say you want a revolution...
While sitting around this weekend, listening to the part of my music collection that's 40+ years old, I started thinking about the protests in the 60s and how they would be different today because of technology. I highly recommend songs like Buffalo Springfield's For what it's worth or Creedence's Fortunate son if you want to set the right mood. Some candles and incense help, too. I'd put on a strobe light, but I'd probably give myself a seizure.
So if the 60s happened today...first off, the campus protests. Communication would be much, much better. Everyone has a cell phone, now. If you bought a 7-11 special provisioned with a smart card, they're virtually untraceable. Huge protests could be called with virtually no notice by using SMS. Lack of coordination is usually the problem with coalition groups, cells, wi-fi and special websites could easily fix that. How about counter-culture blogs where Yippies, Black Panthers and SDS members could plot?
Civil disobedience could be significantly enhanced by wireless technology. Flash crowds could block highways, train stations and public venues without even breaking the law. I saw a blurb recently about some students that, to prove a point, drove 4 cars in parallel down a highway, going the speedlimit and blocking anyone from passing them at greater speeds. It was a complete mess, snarling traffic for miles. Imagine a concerted campaign to do that on say, the DC Beltway? At 3:30 on a Friday? Before a 3-day weekend?
A little encryption would make it very hard for routine government wiretapping. Specially coded websites could be used as "digital dropsites" for cohesive maneuvering. MP3 players would bring the music to everyone and permit songwriters to create protest songs about topical events and instantaneously broadcast them to the budding revolutionaries.
Abbie Hoffman's Steal this book would probably be Hack this website.
I can almost smell the pot.
The flipside, of course, is that whatever the counter-culture has, the cops do, too. They would spy on the websites and the cellphones and the wifi, essentially becoming "cyber narcs" without taking any risks.
Even more importantly, I suspect that any organized student protests, especially if there was a hint of violence, would be considered terrorism and therefore subject to the Patriot Act and worse. I do not think that America would tolerate stone-throwing revolutionaries today, even if they were our own kids.
I pity the next generation that hasn't figured this out, because government now has all the tools that they need to take action against domestic protest. I wonder if there's room in Gitmo for antiwar protesters? I hope that they at least write good rock-and-roll.
Posted on April 03, 2006
