Defiance in the Age of Information Democracy

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 "Putin defiant in face of protests." http://news.yahoo.com/putin-team-defiant-protest-rocks-russia-103526416.html 

I think this kind of defiance in the face of unprecedented public outrage is going to backfire, and more so now than in the past.   If not soon, eventually.

You just can’t keep a lid on dissatisfaction forever, not in the age we live in, the Age of Information Democracy.   

Dictators, elected or not, are notoriously “defiant,” like those in Syria, Libya, eastern Europe, some nations in Africa and Latin America.  The Papa Doc, once absolute dictator of Haiti, syndrome.  The Mubarek of Egypt syndrome.   Sometimes US foreign policy makes it worse.  Usually it just prolongs, even exascerbates, the inevitable internal struggle for self-determination, as in Iraq. It will all shake out in spite of us.  It's a matter of time, and a painful process. 

Defiance on the part of the ruling elite used to work for a long time, decades even.  Not now.

Now, everything is known or can be discovered, found out, googled, out of the closet, open, accessible.  There’s no hiding the truth now, no hiding information.  No hiding facts, ideas, secrets.  No hiding правда.  

It’s the Age of Information Democracy, the age of the internet and social media, with online access for all.  Information of, by and for the people.  You can run, but you cannot hide.

So deception and defiance won’t work for long as a strategy against protest and expressions of the people’s will.  That’s how it’s looking in Russia today. Putin's outdated. Nor is the USA immune from this age-old syndrome.  We don’t always practice what we preach.

Better to listen to the people’s voices. Nations, their governments, their economic and political elites, need to change strategy. Develop a new paradigm of communication and change.  Is this possible?   It's the Age of Information Democracy.  A new generation, the internet generation, has emerged.   Something’s gotta give.  Something new is evolving.  A new age is dawning.