[Prev|Next|Index] Thu, Feb 22, 1996 Bard Bloom

Equality and the Net

     By Bard Bloom

     The net is a kind of place that hasn't been seen in the civilized
     world before. It's a place where people can actually be equal.
     Race, sex, physical disability, religion, wealth, and most of the
     other bases for discrimination and division are invisible on the
     net. People meet and talk, sharing thoughts and feelings, with no
     barriers save the limitations of language. The net is the
     birthplace of deep friendships, deep understandings, the
     celebration of differences.

     In the coming decades, the net will unite the world, or as much
     of the world as will participate. Friendships will cross
     continents and countries; net-friendships initially, but they
     will (and have) blossomed into social and economic ties.

     This depends crucially on freedom of communication: the ability
     to say what we need to say. If America censors the net, America
     will cut itself out of the heart of the net.

     In the twentieth century, America was the spirit of freedom and
     equality. If we continue to censor the net, in the twenty-first,
     we will be the spirit of totalitarianism and chains.

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