The way we live
I’m following the upheaval in Egypt with interest as it all goes back to Clay Shirky’s premise that technology is changing more than you would have thought – the global community is truly here despite aspirations to stay local, to retain identity, to not get swept away with the flotsam – as soon as everybody controls access to information, no one is in charge and then what? Chaos.
Is chaos a good thing? Most likely you might see that the first rise of dissension works best because everyone unites against an enemy but then that is when real trouble hits. Topple this regime, yeah, no problem. But erect, build, decree this new regime – Houston, we may have a problem as everyones’ ideas vie for legitimacy.
We are living through interesting times.
On the Rooftops of Iran
Over the starlit rooftops, in Iran,
echoes the agonized voice
of those who only want
to say something.
Not the litany of the muezzins
and their monotonous prayers,
asking no questions, insisting on the same answers.
It’s the green song tearing
off the black cloth of the ayatollahs
as if from high above the houses
it would be possible to anticipate
the birth of light
that bloodies the dawn.
AFFONSO ROMANO DE SANT’ANNA translated from the Portuguese by Lloyd Schwartz, with Rogério Zola Santiago
Northwest Review Volume 48, Number 2 / 2010