The 90s are the 60s

     by Caleb John Clark,
     for 24 hours of democracy, 2-22-96

     The government has just stuffed a handkerchief in our slack jawed
     and drooling mouth. It was easy, we've been blotto for months
     from shots of love fest liquor and hits of ain't this great acid.
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     We're the hippies of the nineties, man! Technology is our drug,
     money our sex. Our "free love" is "global communication". Like
     the hippies, we've got the right message, but the public sees us
     as a group of totally irresponsible freaks ranting and raving.
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     If we want the government to get out. We have to get in.
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     The Telecom bill passed with the obscenity clauses tacked on
     because, in the eyes of the people of who make up America the
     Internet is not lead by responsible people. The white sacs in
     Washington felt this and responded. We've been high off of
     building the Net and not responding to anything but hot tech.
     drugs.
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     The Telecom Bill is our wake up call. It's time to sober up and
     deal with the unpleasant fact that our precious toy is now a
     monster rampaging in a capitalistic society, surrounded by a
     bizarre and alien world that does not understand what our beloved
     Net is. If we don't educate them, and train it to behave, they
     will kill it.
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     People bitch about magazines being less censored then the Net is.
     Sounds great if said with enough gusto, but what a useless
     argument! The magazine industry can claim due diligence in
     protecting kids. Shrink wrapping, retailers visually checking for
     age, porn laws, etc. Our defense is our drug, technology, but
     it's a weak defense because we can show no noticeable attempts to
     organize any self control as a group.
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     There's a lot of very powerful people out there with a lot of
     very real concerns and it's time we listened instead of
     belittling them for not "understanding where we come from", for
     not dropping acid so they can experience and then know what we
     know, man.
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     Let's address the concerns of the people that are about to be
     force fed this New Media. Lets stop insulting them by calling
     their concerns silly and the facts over hyped. Concerns born of
     misinformation are still very real concerns.
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     We all know that a group of 12 year old boys living on the
     surface of mars will figure out how to find pictures of naked
     woman. This is not the point. The point is that we have not
     addressed their parent's concerns while we simultaneously we
     preach that we will fill the schools with Net access. So the
     government has just addressed these concerns for us and they do
     not care if it is the right way of addressing them, they just
     knew it was time.
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     You do not protect your right to free speech in a new media by
     ignoring the very people who will support it. You protect your
     right by being responsible with that right. And we have to do it
     in a way that the public understands and the press reports on.
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     It's time to figure out a way to enforce a standard of tags
     within file names that can signal a browser about content before
     the file displays. Lets push for optional lockouts in hardware
     and software so adults can control access.
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     It is not an infringement of free speech for a teacher or parent
     to bar an 12 year old from seeing pictures of bestiality, nor is
     the first amendment crushed if that same picture has to have "R"
     in it's file name.
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     Once this kind of control is established, once we have done what
     we can in the futile battle against the 12 year olds, we can
     fight for our rights of free speech for adults with power and
     conviction. Once we have laid a solid foundation of
     responsibility we can then accept nothing less then free speech.
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     Brothers and sisters of the revolution, the commune has fallen
     apart. It was a blast, we got a lot of foundation work done, a
     lot of press, they will remember our message for a long time to
     come. It couldn't of happened any other way.
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     The barn raising that resulted in the Net as we know it has
     changed into a full time construction job. Now it's time to walk
     down that dirt road into town, step up to the welfare office,
     decline further checks and become a positive part of the world
     that surrounds us. As the old hippies will tell you, it really
     can be a lot of fun!

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