The Technological Revolution isn’t just a Technological Revolution

Is modern technology making oligarchy more difficult? It is harder to maintain thought control over a population equipped with the latest gadgets?

I would like to think so. Can these be used to inform the public of business ethics violations and can it cause problems for errant corporations that their bloated PR budgets can’t fix? I don’t know but I bet there are people sweating these new developments.

Jan Huss knew the power of people and the power of words. His followers changed the nature of warfare by using firearms and circled wagons against the heavily armored knights of the time. The power of an informed and aroused population is incredible. Electronics may be the new firearm when it comes to modern revolution, and may we have the luck and conviction that no matter what has been done in the name of money, that these changes be peaceful.

James Pilant

Using Skyfall to Fight Back Against Kim Jong-un | James Jones

Kim Jong-un\’s regime recognizes the threat posed by people like Jeong, and has reportedly been sending security forces house to house, searching for illegal DVDs. Last November, he reportedly ordered the execution of as many as 80 people, some for watching foreign television.

But the formula that has sustained the totalitarian dictatorship — keeping its people isolated and afraid of the outside world–is being challenged by a tide of popular culture and new technology. Along with DVDs and thumb drives, cell phones are now proliferating in North Korea. It\’s illegal to modify them to call out of the country — but using Chinese SIM cards, some North Koreans are taking that risk. They\’re using their phones to communicate with family members who have escaped and over the phone recount their stories about the outside world.

And as footage secretly filmed inside the country and smuggled out for this week\’s FRONTLINE documentary shows, some North Koreans are privately questioning the legitimacy of the Kim dynasty itself, and publicly challenging authority in ways unimaginable a decade ago.

via Using Skyfall to Fight Back Against Kim Jong-un | James Jones.