The key tool of terrorists is terror, controlling thought and behavior through fear. It is interesting in our modern age how terrorist governments have made use of technology. Today I am thinking of Lybia, Syria and Iran but any country can do this and the list keeps growing. Without technology and terror crowd control has always been achieved through by more crowds, well armed and armored police and military. In civil societies they might use water cannons, rubber bullets or maybe teargas with the objective of sending the crowd home and dealing with the issue another way.
Now they are using real bullets, armored vehicles and tanks and the objective is to squash the rebellion, kill the opponents and rule through fear. Iran has mastered this ability and exports its technology throughout the Middle East. At a sign of initial protest the police might only show up with cameras in hand or a single sniper perched on top of a building safely a half mile away. Suddenly and without a sound a single well place bullet can penetrate a speaker's head! No one knows where the bullet came from, where the enemy is or who is next in his sites.
Meanwhile the photos are being examined not even by humans in a back room of a government building
but by computers and through photo-recognition software, they are supplying a name and address to the photograph. In the middle of the night an armed security detail will knock the door down and remove the subject in the photograph eliminating that protester.
This is the modern era and every civilized society should have fear of it. Our own "Patriot Act" allows almost unlimited government access to our every keystroke, our every telephone conversation, our personal mail and entry to our homes without court order. This sounds better than it is when we can agree on who the
"bad guys" are but it is always a bit frightening to relinquish hard won freedoms in the name of security.
It took us hundreds of years to develop a government of laws, rights and responsibilities to replace tribal
supremacy and the power of the majority. I don't want to see us lose a single step that we have gained and I will have no belief in the uprisings around the world until I hear a cry for the rule of law and a protection for those who disagree.
My Art is Always HERE
Now they are using real bullets, armored vehicles and tanks and the objective is to squash the rebellion, kill the opponents and rule through fear. Iran has mastered this ability and exports its technology throughout the Middle East. At a sign of initial protest the police might only show up with cameras in hand or a single sniper perched on top of a building safely a half mile away. Suddenly and without a sound a single well place bullet can penetrate a speaker's head! No one knows where the bullet came from, where the enemy is or who is next in his sites.
Meanwhile the photos are being examined not even by humans in a back room of a government building
but by computers and through photo-recognition software, they are supplying a name and address to the photograph. In the middle of the night an armed security detail will knock the door down and remove the subject in the photograph eliminating that protester.
This is the modern era and every civilized society should have fear of it. Our own "Patriot Act" allows almost unlimited government access to our every keystroke, our every telephone conversation, our personal mail and entry to our homes without court order. This sounds better than it is when we can agree on who the
"bad guys" are but it is always a bit frightening to relinquish hard won freedoms in the name of security.
It took us hundreds of years to develop a government of laws, rights and responsibilities to replace tribal
supremacy and the power of the majority. I don't want to see us lose a single step that we have gained and I will have no belief in the uprisings around the world until I hear a cry for the rule of law and a protection for those who disagree.
My Art is Always HERE
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