Global actionism (activism) has spiked over the last couple of weeks. From the streets of Iran and Honduras to the U.S. Supreme Court, people are raising hell for their political foes. So what does this mean for us? Well, politics are finally sexy again…I’m going to break these events down and show you how they may be related. But first, let me explain what these events are.

Iran - The Case of a Contested Election

In case you didn’t know…The Iranian elections were held on June 12th. Although there were several candidates, it really was a show down between the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his greatest challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.  Most analysts predicted that Mousavi would win the election, so when the  Islamic Republic News Agency (Iran’s official news agency) announced that Ahmadinejad won with 63% of the vote, people hit the streets to protest what seemed like obvious fraud. Somewhere around 70% of Iran’s population is under the age of 30. These individuals tend to be well educated and worldly, so they were T’d off…Protests continue to persist, but the Iranian security forces have done a good job of clamping down. If I had to guess, I’d say that we’re not go to witness the overthrow of the Islamic Republic anytime soon, but one thing’s for sure - this is the beginning of the end…

Green is the New Black…

You may be wondering, why is everybody dying their facebook and twitter profiles green…? They’re doing it to show their solidarity with the protestors in Iran. Two questions:

(1) if our election was stolen, would they take to the streets?

(2) do these individuals actually know what’s going on, or are they just doing it because it’s trendy?

Either way, they’re supporting a good cause, so we’ll let them off the hook…

Honduras - A Coup d’etat

Nobody’s surprised by another coup in Central America, but what is shocking is that our government wasn’t behind this one and is instead suggesting that we let the anti-American president return. Is the change the Obama administration promised…?

Judicial Activism

June 29th - The U.S. Supreme Court overruled a decision by a lower court. Not out of the ordinary, but the case is of interest because Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was one of the judges on the lower court. It all started when the New Haven, Connecticut fire department threw out a promotion exam that white firefighters did better on. The city said that it was acting to avoid a law suit by minorities. Then appeals court judge, Sonia Sotomayor, upheld this decision.

With Sotomayor’s high court hearings beginning in a few weeks, the S.C.’s decision to hear this case was interesting…Might the court be playing politics? The close 5-4 (conservative to liberal) decision also reflects this argument… 

Whatever way you slice it, political actionism is on the rise across the world. As someone who documents these events, I’m not taking a stance - just pointing them out. On the whole, it’s good a thing when people stand up for what they believe in. Let’s just hope they’re on the right side…

Mark Korshak is the Founder and President of Project Youthanize. He is the writer and producer of the “Youthanized” docs, “Millennial News Briefs” series, and “The Civic Life” reality show. He is also the creative editor of projectyouthanize.org.

More Info

The Iranian elections - The big picture

Honduras - The big picture

The Supreme Court’s decision