Tech Revolution

Syria's President Bashar Assad opened his country's congressional sessions with some haunting statements on the use of the information revolution against his regime:

Assad told the congress of Syria's ruling Baath Party on Monday that a media influx had left Arabs "swamped by disinformation" about themselves.

"These many inputs, especially with the evolution of communication and information technology, made the society open, and this opened the door for some confusion and suspicion in the minds of Arab youth.

"The ultimate objective of all this is the destruction of Arab identity; for the enemies of the Arab nation are opposed to our possessing any identity or upholding any creed that could protect our existence and cohesion, guide our vision and direction, or on which we can rely in our steadfastness," Assad said Monday.

"We must face this situation with great awareness, responsibility and defiance."

Focusing on the swirl of modern information and the huge influx of ideas to the region, Assad said that development was being exploited by what he said were the region's enemies.

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He referred to "forces behind" the modern trends that would exploit and generate societal upheaval in the Arab world, leading "to the cultural, political and moral collapse of the Arab individual and his ultimate defeat without a fight."

"They simply aim at transforming us into a negative, reactive mass, which absorbs everything that is thrown at it without the will or even the possibility of thinking or rejecting or accepting it."

Of course, Assad frames the information revolution as something which seeks to create reactionary, divisive means in order to destroy the "Arab Identity," which is certainly not the case. The current loss of power of Syria's influence, such as in Lebanon, is not due solely to outside factors pushing buttons, or insiders who seek to corrode and corrupt the power structures in the Middle East for revolutionary purposes; but it is a strange combination of these things.

It is, in the end, a living experiment of what happens when the technology that breeds information cheaply arrives in the hands of the oppressed. They become somewhat informed, somewhat reactionary, and often times, very displeased by what they can see.

But there is a negative side to the information revolution, which Americans are grappling at the moment and which could decide the fates of many in the Middle East: the ability for IT to be propogandized and manipulated so swiftly. In a sense, Assad is correct. The new information in his region is filled with disinformation. And yet, it is a tool of empowerment against Assad, a prospect of which he should be very fearful.

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And by the way, as The Poor Man points out to some cheerful Right-ists, the reforms going on in Lebanon aren't really the President's doing, so be tempered with your cheers for the Revolution.

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UPDATE by General Stan 4:49p 6 Jun 05 :
The CS Monitor also examines the newly democratic regions in the Mid East and the electorate's voting preference: Hamas and Hezbollah.