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Prev| Next| Index 2/15/96, joee@li.net, ny, usa
A few thoughts regarding freedom and the internet
By j. ercole, joee@li.net.
Before I share a few of my own thoughts about democracy, freedom,
the internet, and the CDA I'd like to point out what should be a
very obvious point of paramount importance: Be responsible for
acquiring some knowledge of your own regarding the CDA. Don't
take anyone's word for anything. Research and read at least some
of the vast resources available concerning this and similar
issues; empower yourself by discussing and defending "both" sides
of the debate. In short, refuse to relinquish the vast creative
potential of critical thought - - - to anyone.
It's difficult, if not impossible, to overstate the coercive and
corrective power held at this time by governments and
corporations. On an hourly basis, Corporate entities and
governmental agencies manifest enormous influence on our actions,
thoughts, dreams and aspirations. We are unique creatures,
reacting differently and unpredictably to similar stimuli. We
act, react and interact with political, spiritual or economic
structures in different ways. Some prosper and flourish while a
great many suffer. Perhaps we are constitutionally incapable of
realizing wholly fair and just institutions. Perhaps no human
structure or process can be wholly free of arbitrary prejudice
and caprice. Nevertheless, powerful, frequently inscrutable and
sometimes imperceptible forces are continuously wielded, subtlely
or less so, by trans-secular entities created, but no longer
completely controlled by human beings. Unpredicted and frequently
undesired emergent properties or characteristics actualize from
the gestalt of the many new relationships and interactions
generated and sustained by cutting-edge technologies, evolving
social milieus, "reinvented" government agencies, revamped and
revisited religious and philosophical institutions, et cetera, et
cetera. We navigate new waters with old maps. We dream of
stability while desiring change. We impose decency standards on
the internet and hope for the best.
Frequently, in attempting to understand the societal forces at
work we "parse", for the sake of convenience and the betterment
of our understanding, the influences and intentions at work: This
problem falls under governmental auspices, while that is a matter
best handled by schools. By "farming-out" our crises in this
piece-meal manner we tend miss the less than obvious connections
between both convergent and divergent events. For example, we
might be tempted to view the CDA and all it's ramifications as
primarily a "political" event. One might choose to see it as
good-intentioned though misguided social policy. Someone else
might interpret it as a blatant and crass assault on our
fundamental liberties. Another might believe, and with some good
reason, the policy a necessary safe-guard for children.
On the surface, these divergent views might appear to have some
merit. Soon enough, we discover our discourse bogged-down in the
same, protracted trench warfare of the "abortion question" or
"the proper size of government." Sadly, we are compelled to
expend effort slogging through these quagmires if we choose to
right perceived injustices. E-mail must be sent, web-sites
blackened, representatives contacted, and votes cast. "Classic"
methods of activism must play an important role. Otherwise we'll
invariably get, and be disappointed by, the government we settle
for. However, the internet is nothing if not about seeing the
forest for the trees. The net invites and nourishes tangential
inquiry as well as linear pursuits. Hyper-text media encourages a
longer and broader view of things. Stepping back, one finds
oneself less tempted to mistake symptom for cause. The internet
teaches many, critical lessons to the observant: There are many
roads and many paths to the same destination; everything is
potentially connected to everything else; freedom is not a gift
bestowed, but a journey undertaken. No one can make this journey
for us or prevent us from undertaking it ourselves. If this is
read as naive optimism, so be it.
Too many people work to avoid or discredit these lessons. Some
wring their hands and lament destructive and amoral "market
forces" or bemoan civil societies' "crisis of values." Some drift
through a world of insecure and unfufilling employment , unsafe
streets, marginalized sub-cultures, and dispossessed families.
Others revel in possibility, cyber-surfing the "third wave." It's
a diverse network of possibility and interaction. Nightly, the
anointed enter our homes through television and other forms of
media. These so called mavens and pundits vacillate, equivocate
and bicker incessantly. Some political, spiritual, and
intellectual leaders brandish platitudes while others offer a
unique and useful vision of the travail ahead. Floodwaters of
opinion, fact, information, and analysis wait to be dammed off
and put to use irrigating a parched land. We live in times of
feast and famine. We live in times of pestilence and war. We've
lived to see The First Horseman Of The Apocalypse --- The Brady
Bunch Movie --- ride. Damned to live in interesting times, we
barter and trade our own hopes and ambitions while looking with
apprehension towards the young. As you no doubt have already
imagined, the message we find there is, at best, mixed.
The best and brightest young minds raise irony to the most
exalted reaches of the pantheon. The boundless energy of youth
turns to pastiche, self-indulgence and solipsism. At the same
time, diverse pairs of sharp and critical eyes, --- tamed, wild,
far-seeing, myopic, formally educated and self-schooled --- peer
fearlessly or blandly (but, always, matter-of-factly) into the
abyss. The intellectual and spiritual "badlands" of Sartre,
Kierkegaard and Nietzsche finds itself populated anew by rebels
and reactionaries experiencing "the void" as just another
sub-division of the "vast nursery (nee wasteland)" of their
youth. Casual visionaries and pioneers an evolutionary-leap or
two past jaded. The super-sane took "a wrong turn at Albuquerque"
emerging from their rabbit holes --- beachchair and suntan lotion
in hand --- at the edge of the world. Wearing sunglasses and
gazing into the long twilight of their souls we can almost hear
them mutter, "this sure doesn't look like Pebble Beach." Punk
prophets --- neuromantic and otherwise --- with a lean and hungry
look, corrupting and co-opting icons and symbols both sacrosanct
and shallow. Know ye this: Despite all, they know the hour and
they know the day.
The internet, like all information, yearns to be free. Knowledge
itself, quite apart from our efforts, unceasingly strains to free
itself from all restraint. How we choose to participate in
information's' struggle is up to each of us. This "wave" of new
technologies and knowledge some of us ride is going someplace.
Although there will always be questions about where and how, some
principles remain, if not certain, at least useful: Explore all
there is to know about the subjects and areas which interest you;
relentlessly question authority; seek to understand power, while
remaining wary of its' seductive and corrupting nature; know
thyself.
Keywords: "new york", "usa".
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