I SAID ON FRIDAY HOW CURIOUS it was that the fate of the protesters in Iran is so strangely entwined with the sleep schedule of the geeks maintaining the servers at twitter and YouTube.

THAT THE PROTESTORS’ STRUGGLE IS VISIBLE, on a granular, person by person level, gives them optimism, and it gives us a new window upon a remote land and culture.

WHAT WE SEE: similarity.

YOUNG PEOPLE, CLOSER TO US in wardrobe, vision, and optimism, than we might have thought. And though great divides may yet separate us, the protestors are similar in at least one way: they all use the internet. And not in the insidious, demonizing way we were warned of, to recruit terrorists and plan attacks on civilians. But in the most geekish way: to subvert authority with an idea.

And he goes on.

Damn, I love John Hodgman. For that piece, for his speech at the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner, for his impeccable comic timing–oh, what? You missed his speech at the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner? Please stop now and watch: