The power of information

Being a news junky isn’t always a happy business. At its best, political news centers around people with good intentions in conflict over how to fix a problem. Too often, it’s about allegations that the other team caused those problems and, at its worst, it devolves into personal attacks.

Every now and then, a story comes along that offers a bit of hope. Even then, the issue may be rooted in conflict, but demonstrates a positive approach to the resolution of that conflict. Such was an article that popped up on Reuters last weekend, and for a few fleeting moments, my faith in humanity was restored.

As you are probably aware, there have been some civil dust-ups in Iran lately. Specifically, they are experiencing their own George Floyd moment over a 22-year-old female protester who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police.

Yes, there is a morality police force. They are officially known as the “Gasht-e-Ershad” or Guidance Patrols, and on paper, they exist to enforce adherence to a broad range of Islamic Fundamentalist practices with all residents and visitors to Iran. In reality, they spend most of their energy citing and arresting women for wearing inappropriate clothing.

On Sept. 16, a Guidance Patrol in Tehran picked up Mahsa Amini for what Iranian officials characterized as “wearing her hijab improperly.” Let’s all say her name together, shall we? Mahsa Amini. If we can report the names of demented mass shooters (a big mistake in my opinion), then we can all share the memory of a young lady caught up in the brutality of a totalitarian regime.

Tensions between secular activists and the Islamist theocracy are nothing new. People my age will recall the Iranian Revolution of 1979 when a forward-thinking, secular “Shah” was overthrown and replaced by an Islamic Republic. It’s memorable to Americans because our embassy was taken over by the rebels and 52 of our State Department staff were held hostage for more than a year. An oil shortage ensued (our second of that decade) and the hostage crisis played a significant role in Jimmy Carter being a one-term president.

By comparison, our pain was minor compared to that experienced by educated, upper-class, westernized Iranians who opposed the transformation to an Islamist state. Those who were not jailed or murdered fled to Western Europe, Canada and the United States. I was privileged to know a few ladies in the early 1980s who were bright, well-educated, fashionable people and simply asked that we refer to them as “Persian” to avoid the backlash of less-enlightened Americans.

That’s the backdrop for the article titled, “Musk says he will activate Starlink amid Iran protests.” Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite “constellation” that enables internet connectivity in remote areas, is being activated for the benefit of Iranians who are brave enough to risk arrest and torture. Thanks to a carve-out in the US Treasury Department's sanctions against Iran, SpaceX can help Iranian dissidents in their efforts to return their country to the Iranian people for a modern, secular society.

Over the past three years, an increasing number of Iranians, primarily students, have been protesting courageously in spite of the stranglehold of the Iranian regime. In response to that unrest, the Islamist Republic has locked down all non-Islamic media outlets and effectively shut down the internet.

Musk opening StarLink over Iran overrides the censorship of the Iranian government and allows protesters to communicate with each other, share tactics and more importantly, allow protesters to tell the stories of people like Mahsa Amini and others who, unlike suicide bombers, truly are martyrs.

Make no mistake, the protests have not yet risen to the levels of Tanks in Tiananmen Square. The “Arab Spring” protests throughout the Middle East in 2010 to 2012 never really materialized, so I’m not letting my hopes get too high about this one. What encourages me is that where information is suppressed and citizens are repressed, we are able to provide connectivity that helps information to flow and promotes movements toward freedom. That’s big, but not new.

In the last decade, Short Wave Radio was recognized for its ability to cross geographic lines. Organizations like Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, Radio Marti and others fought World War II and the cold war.

More recently, Voice of Korea has transmitted into Communist North Korea, where listening to anything other than state-sponsored radio is forbidden by law. Non-governmental organizations in the South have pooled resources to launch balloons carrying unblocked radios on prevailing winds into the north. Today, the balloons also carry thumb drives loaded with pro-western content across the border with the hopes that someday, the entire Korean peninsula can be free.

It has been argued that Rambo Movies contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. With all respect due to Mr. Stallone, I’m not sure if I am ready to give him that much credit. He’s good at polo, but foreign policy? I don’t doubt for a moment that western culture played a role, but our real gift to the world is freedom and self-governance, and the results are hard to ignore.

The poetry of the story, in my view, is that we can cause havoc for a foe that is hell-bent on our destruction by simply untying the hands of the American business community. I favor most forms of deregulation to begin with, but knowing that wars can be fought, won (and averted) by our private sector in nonviolent ways should give us all a bit of hope. Is there anything more American than that?

Above all, it serves the greater need for freedom in all of us. Thanks to Mr. Musk, the people of Iran will have the ability to tell the world about the abuses of the pariah state, but more importantly, they will have access to the free flow of information.

In the end, information is soft power just as education is soft power. I have known as much since I was taught that in the darker pages of our own history, slaves were prevented from learning how to read. That clinched it for me. That was all I needed to know. Learning that information is being provided to the people of Iran by the private sector is just icing on the cake. That is truly a great headline.