I don’t always agree with NY Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, but in a piece today on Addicted to Oil he made a brief, but very insightful remark about the development of civil society in the middle east:
The mosque became an alternative power center because it was the only place the government’s iron fist could not fully penetrate. As such, it became a place where people were able to associate freely, incubate local leaders and generate a shared opposition ideology.
That is why the minute any of these Arab countries hold free and fair elections, the Islamists burst ahead.
So the theory goes, in a repressive society which does not allow much in the way of freedom of speech, ideas will begin to flow in the places where government power is weak. Absent an open coffee house or town hall, civil society may begin to form around a more closed and perhaps radical place of worship. This really highlights the importance of place in the creation of publics.
Perhaps this is why China is going to such great lengths to control speech on the Internet.
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