From Berlin Wall to Firewall
by ALI CHENAR in Tehran
25 Feb 2010 18:43
Who would have imagined at the height of the Cold War that the Wall could suddenly come down? Yet the Eastern Bloc collapsed, and with it fell the Wall. As always, we are left with the lessons of history--some of which apply to the current situation in Iran.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall signified that no government can effectively separate its people from the rest of the world. The task is particularly hopeless when the people have strong ties and share a rich cultural heritage with those in neighboring countries, as well as a global community. A regime might influence a people's self-image through strict laws and persecution, but a communal identity formed from centuries of tradition and culture is not easily abnegated. Iranians, like Germans, have a profound sense of identity. And in this era of the Internet and globalized mass communication, they have connected it to the outside world.
Today, firewalls have replaced physical walls in the effort to control and restrict communication, but these blockades are porous and surmountable. Unlike in the days of the Cold War, when Eastern Europeans were largely prevented from peering beyond their borders, today Iranians can experience a diversity of foreign cultures. They can obtain news from and exchange information with other countries thanks to a virtual global network that is so vast, not even the most oppressive regime can suppress it. Satellite television channels, social networks, chat rooms, and a virtually endless number of Internet sites allow access to the world in one's living room. That has significant consequences not only for citizens' awareness of and perspective on international affairs, but also for how they view themselves. Crucially, it has compromised their government's ability to shape the world according to its own political agenda. Firewalls have been able to restore a portion of that ability on a temporary basis by shutting down certain sites and blocking others. But firewalls are breached every nanosecond, and disallowing access to one site simply drives people to another, while adept hackers find a way around the embargo entirely.
Like the Berlin Wall, the main achievement of dictatorial firewalls will not be security at all, but rather self-deception. And like the Berlin Wall--an essential purpose of which was also to signify an impenetrable border--firewalls in fact expose the government's own insecurity, fear, and paranoia as it tries desperately to control its population. The Berlin Wall, along with the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic's notorious intelligence service, created a false sense of security that enabled the ruling elite to dismiss any call for change or reform. It engendered among those in power a belief in a fallacious identity, one not shared by their people, who used any means possible to venture west while the Wall stood and did not waste a moment to rush over its remains after it fell. Those who shielded themselves with the Wall thought themselves different from the rest of the world and from past regimes. They criminalized political opposition, and told themselves they did it to defend the values of a socialist society. The most important crime of all was so-called decadence, they declared, rather than the systematic violation of people's rights. Permitting no venue for challenge, they imagined that they had succeeded in controlling the public's thoughts, emotions, and desires. They thought themselves invincible.
Today too, firewalls are installed because the ruling elite in Tehran need to believe they are different from the rest of the world. They want to control the ideas of the masses through a ubiquitous propaganda system, to be in control as well as in charge. They want to maintain the illusion to themselves, their people, and the rest of the world that they are immune to decay and collapse.
Yes, they need their firewalls, not to protect their people from a corrupt world, but to maintain their own belief in the myth of their invincibility. The most significant difference between the Berlin Wall and the Iranian regime's firewall is that it may be more difficult to document the precise moment when the latter collapses, if it hasn't already.
Copyright © 2010 Tehran Bureau