Saddam Hussein's Execution And Privacy
Sorry for not posting so long, but it was the holidays. I hope you spent it around a warm hearth with your friends and loved ones, drinking egg nog and generally being filled with Christmas cheer.
Not on the computer for a guy's infrequent blog postings, growing angrier and angrier.
Anyway, Saddam Hussein's execution was not just the execution of a tyrant. It will be one of those moments where cell phones really changed society and history.
It was supposed to be a secret, with no official cameras, no public demonstrations. It was done in a small cellar, not unlike the ones he sent his victims to.
However, there were no official cameras there, just a guy with a cell phone with a movie recording. Now, we get to see that.
People got to see that bit of eye-for-an-eye justice because of a cell phone video recording. These images can change history - the Vietnamese officer shooting the prisoner, raising the flag, etc. These images happen after the technology has been around for a while. History takes a while to catch up with technology. With this execution, history finally did that. Cameras for everyone, which people can carry around anywhere and everywhere, even to an execution.
Would a person be able to bring along a movie camera, even 10 years ago? Probably not. (On a side note that's sure to pay off later, I don't know anything about the execution details, because I do zero research for this website. I'm writing this for fun. I mention this because some guy ragged on me for not properly writing about Johnny and the Hurricanes. You're right, guy.)
Anyway, if everyone gets cell phone, and every cell phone has a video recording feature, then everybody'll have a camera. We used to have nightmares about being constantly surveyed. Now, everyone will eventually be able to record anything anyone does.
If everyone had a camera phone, it would be much more acceptable. With the Internet, if you slip on a banana peel, you could be laughed at by people you've never known in places you'll never be. Millions of people happened.
Regular people should have a right to do stupid things and not have it be seen by millions.
This blog has put an interesting spin on this for me. I've told maybe three people about this blog, but people I wouldn't dare tell about it have read it. Maybe they've googled something, and I've come up. Maybe word of mouth, I don't know.
I had this idea that the Internet was so big that this blog was private. That helped me start it, but that idea's gone now. Because the one other fan of Johnny and the Hurricanes found me.
There's a dignity to things not being seen. Did Saddam deserve that dignity? No, because he was a public tyrant, who brutalized millions. He gave up his right to privacy. We aren't all public figures. We aren't all celebrities. We aren't all special, and we all should not have blogs. (I should, because I'm brilliant.) We should not give up our rights to privacy. And it's getting harder not to be private when everyone has a camera phone.
But hey, we bought them. We just have to live with ourselves when we become a hit Youtube phenomenon, with a million views.
Not on the computer for a guy's infrequent blog postings, growing angrier and angrier.
Anyway, Saddam Hussein's execution was not just the execution of a tyrant. It will be one of those moments where cell phones really changed society and history.
It was supposed to be a secret, with no official cameras, no public demonstrations. It was done in a small cellar, not unlike the ones he sent his victims to.
However, there were no official cameras there, just a guy with a cell phone with a movie recording. Now, we get to see that.
People got to see that bit of eye-for-an-eye justice because of a cell phone video recording. These images can change history - the Vietnamese officer shooting the prisoner, raising the flag, etc. These images happen after the technology has been around for a while. History takes a while to catch up with technology. With this execution, history finally did that. Cameras for everyone, which people can carry around anywhere and everywhere, even to an execution.
Would a person be able to bring along a movie camera, even 10 years ago? Probably not. (On a side note that's sure to pay off later, I don't know anything about the execution details, because I do zero research for this website. I'm writing this for fun. I mention this because some guy ragged on me for not properly writing about Johnny and the Hurricanes. You're right, guy.)
Anyway, if everyone gets cell phone, and every cell phone has a video recording feature, then everybody'll have a camera. We used to have nightmares about being constantly surveyed. Now, everyone will eventually be able to record anything anyone does.
If everyone had a camera phone, it would be much more acceptable. With the Internet, if you slip on a banana peel, you could be laughed at by people you've never known in places you'll never be. Millions of people happened.
Regular people should have a right to do stupid things and not have it be seen by millions.
This blog has put an interesting spin on this for me. I've told maybe three people about this blog, but people I wouldn't dare tell about it have read it. Maybe they've googled something, and I've come up. Maybe word of mouth, I don't know.
I had this idea that the Internet was so big that this blog was private. That helped me start it, but that idea's gone now. Because the one other fan of Johnny and the Hurricanes found me.
There's a dignity to things not being seen. Did Saddam deserve that dignity? No, because he was a public tyrant, who brutalized millions. He gave up his right to privacy. We aren't all public figures. We aren't all celebrities. We aren't all special, and we all should not have blogs. (I should, because I'm brilliant.) We should not give up our rights to privacy. And it's getting harder not to be private when everyone has a camera phone.
But hey, we bought them. We just have to live with ourselves when we become a hit Youtube phenomenon, with a million views.
posted by Marshall McMahon at 12:35 AM
1 Comments:
Please do a GOOGLE search on us...and review the info on American Bandstand, the Tonight Show, Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan show, and the 9+ top-40 hit records and 125 albums worldwide over John's and the Hurricanes 50 year career. Some of the biggest names in Rock music consider us an influence... I am dealing with fan letters from Canada, Germany, France, Spain, The UK, The Netherlands and Australia...so for you to insinuate there is just a couple of fans is absurd and a very un-researched guess. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit is coming in spring as well.
...Also, Im not a fan but a Hurricane and webmaster of www.johhnyandthehurricanes.com.
So, you sure are entitled to make an observation, but do a little reading-up on a subject 1st. Its only fair to speak from knowledge.
Thank you, Duane Thomas Lead Guitar. Johnny and The Hurricanes
www.johnnyandthehurricanes.com
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