A lot of Republican naysayers feel Obama has little substance. He is a “celebrity”, more concerned about his career than the fate of the Free World. They always seem to ask the same thing. What “change” is he going to bring?
Trust, combined with the internet, is a weapon many Republicans never seem to get.
What scares a terrorist more? A bomb, or the internet? A terrorist ringleader can find a desperate kid wanting to make ends meet for his family. If that kid gets bombed, he is regarded as a hero and rewarded in Heaven. If you empower that same kid with knowledge from Wikipedia or W3Schools, it’s over. In the same ways the Catholic Church had to conform to a world taken over by the ideas of Martin Luther, Fundamentalist Islam cannot compete with a world where a Muslim student in Pakistan just wants to compare chemistry notes with a Christian student in Texas. Fundamentalist Islam cannot compete with people of two totally different faiths who are comparing how their beliefs are the same and how they are different. Fundamentalist Islam depends on the few guiding and monitoring the many, and that just doesn’t compute in a wired age. Why would a Muslim want to listen to laws made by few men after experiencing the vast expanse of influence on the internet and being able to contribute to it himself?
Bombs incite people. Used prematurely, they make enemies of people who have no business being enemies. Use them unilaterally, and it’s even more stupid. The potential of information on the internet is infinite. We aren’t just literate anymore, we can all be publishers and are all students of our own work. Are we really all that different? Aren’t we all just trying to make our lives a little better for ourselves and our children? The internet, coupled with a commitment to truly understand and appreciate all cultures, is more dangerous than any war the Republicans can continue to fight. It’s important to retain defense, but it’s not going to work against a people who have so little to lose and don’t want us there anyway.
Osama bin Laden wanted us to fight. He was looking to incite us so as to stimulate anti-American sentiment and thus support in his cause, and he did a great job. He still can’t compete with a tool that allows Muslims to learn useful life skills, participate in international commerce, and learn about the world around them. They are shutting themselves in and we must have the courage to help those who want to open up.
Even if we can’t get internet into certain areas, we can get other people into those areas who can then tell their stories. Those stories are then compared to others, which are then scrutinized against others. People love telling their stories, and it’s every historian’s dream to have so many firsthand documents with so many angles to a story.
We are fighting the few who control the many. Activate the many, and the few oppressors are gone. That is what we live now. That is Change.
Two Questions: How many microloans could we have given out in Iraq with the trillions of dollars we spent on this war? If we did that, do you think they would house terrorists?
What is change to you?