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1996-03-11
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i inadvertently registered this page twice while the democracy server was
down.
the result is that you can see this as sort of a crossroads.
[Prev| Next| Index] [Prev| Next| Index]
Come Together...
...or why tyrannts fear the Internet.
the future has
no places of power
for small men,
frightened of change.
they are aware of this fact.
Millions of years ago, we all lived in the same place. Over the
centuries, we drifted apart to the far corners of the world and,
as Black Elk (a Lakota Sioux in North America) put it, the sacred
hoop was broken. We no longer seemed to be One People.
The differences between us that developed were used by
small-minded members of our species for control over us. "THEY
are BAD. THEY are the ENEMY. Follow ME so we can protect
ourselves from THEM". For hundreds of thousands of years, we have
listened to these small-minded members of our species (whether
dressed in general's armor or priest's robes), and for hundreds
of thousands of years, we have fought against each other.
Brothers have killed sisters, fathers have killed their sons.
Often a very unhappy time.
With the growth of the Internet, there's no more "THEY" -- the
globe gets much smaller. Sure there's been television and radio,
but I don't have a TV station in my house, and my neighbor in
Guatemala isn't likely to have a radio station in her back yard.
As has been said before, "Freedom of the Press is only guaranteed
to those that own a press." With the web, we can all own a press
(or at least many, many of us). How are governments ever going to
be able to pull one of those "Yellow Peril" or "Red Scare" acts
over on us if we can access regular folks in those places, make
our own friends in those places, and make our own decisions?
We're not naive enough to think that the Net will magically
produce world peace next Wednesday. Maybe the week after next
though. As more and more humans around the world become
net.citizens, small-minded members of our species will have less
and less effectiveness when they try to tell us "THEY are BAD."
We will respond, "I just talked to THEM yesterday, and THEM is
us."
The unrestricted global flow of information is a serious threat
to powers that be. "Decentralized" and "open" are dirty words
number eight and nine to small-minded members of our species that
want power-over others. The net promotes power-with others.
We make no apologies for the sleaze and the "MAKE MONEY FAST"
messages and the flame wars. John Perry Barlow said it most
eloquently in the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace , "In
our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from
the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the
global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that
chokes from the air upon which wings beat."
The unrestricted net can mend the sacred hoop, and make humanity
whole again. Some small-minded members of our species stand to
lose a whole lot of money if that happens.
You can have my web browser
when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
Thank you for your time,
Brian Hill
slack Magazine
Madison, WI, USA
2/18/96
Down With Greyface!
Link to Disheartened Netster
Harlequin, baby, you gotta understand that it's more than just a .sig: The
Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it If there's anyone
else that got 'cut-off' by their neighbors, mail me the link. Brian Hill