"Yeah, cause what we really need to do is arrest people for being mean to the President."

[chaletian]

My Yahoo!Mail homepage is set up to show me Entertainment News, which is usually hilariously unnewsworthy (except for that time Eminem got back from the MTV awards after being HUMILIATED NIGH UNTO DEATH OMG WOE WOE by Sacha Baron Cohen, to find his hotel room had been burgled), but last night, apparently, one of the headlines was about Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher supporting the Iranians protesting against the election result.

And I was thinking thusly: Yay. I too support them. Down on corrupt elections. And then I started thinking about the protests in Iran, and how those people are doing their best to ensure Iran has a fair and free election, which leads to the question, how far do you get to go in pursuit of that?

It is a faded truism to say that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, but I think it poses an interesting question nonetheless. How far can you go in pursuit of a political aim before you reach the stage where the end no longer justifies the means. A protest is OK, right? But what happens if someone’s hurt, or killed? Or what about doing the hurting or killing yourself? That’s too far, isn’t it? But if you live in a country where there are few political freedoms, how else do you get your voice heard, in that country and in the world? Is it acceptable for a few innocent people to die if it means the end of a regime that’s murdered tens or hundreds or more? On a personal level, you’d say no, but looking at the bigger picture, well, maybe?

I don’t know. But it’s interesting to think about things like this.

Comments

[igrockspock.livejournal.com]

Honestly, if I were oppressed every day, especially in the way the morality police oppress the women of Iran, I don't think offering my life would be going too far. And if other people died at protests, I would probably feel that was their choice because they involved themselves freely. If people died who never even attended the protests? That would be hard. I'd probably spend a lot of time trying to convince people that the cause *was* worth dying for. I think the people of Iran have tried for a very long time to voice their views in ways that do not involve dying, and if that's not working, they have few choices but to go to extremes. People in the American Revolution made the same decision, and I'm grateful for it.