I had just graduated from high school when the Tiananmen Square protests broke out in June 1989. About a year before, I had visited the Soviet Union and I was struck by how, despite its police state, the whole thing was totally unsustainable. The average Russian just did not believe in it, and a regime like that is always doomed to fail. I would be proven right a few years later, but during Tiananman, I hoped that maybe we could see a new China as well. I kept that in mind in 2009, shortly before I joined National Underwriter, when the so-called "Twitter Revolution" took place in Iran. Huge protests in Tehran over a rigged election raised the possibility that the Iranian people, who do not want the same things as the Iranian regime, would overturn things for the better. They had their work cut out for them, especially against a tyrannous ruling clergy, a compliant army, and a state-sponsored plainclothes goon squad called the Basij, whose job is to terrorize those who don't toe the line.
In many ways, Tehran felt a lot like Tiananman, but a big difference in the Tehran demonstrations was the use of Twitter, which the baffled Iranian government could not close down. At the same time, I saw a now-famous video of a girl who died on camera after being shot by the Basij. After that, I spent the next several days tweeting and retweeting like crazy to support the protesters. Mainly I was putting up tactical advice for how to survive against riot police. Use hand mirrors to dazzle sharpshooters. Braid nails together to puncture the tires of light patrol vehicles. Cut metal trash cans in half to make rudimentary phalanxes. That sort of thing.
None of it did any good, of course. In the end, the government stayed in place and the Basij intimidated enough people to stay off the street. It reminded me of something a friend of mine in the Marine Corps once said about America: Ours was a revolution of elites. You cannot underestimate what kind of a difference that makes.
