A Taste of the Coming Dark Ages

The Internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it.
- John Gilmore, 1993

It’s now just after midnight on the East Coast, and Websites around the Internet are returning from a self-imposed blackout in protest of two nominally anti-piracy bills which are currently in both houses of Congress.  It appears to have been a successful protest which has caused a number of supporters to re-think their opinion on the bills.  The White House had previously voiced concern over the bills as well.  It’s a welcome trend against two bills which are very poorly crafted.

The protest also placed the subject first and foremost in the awareness of netizens, such that there is no need to conduct any substantive review of the points of the debate here; however, there are more things which must be borne in mind by those who are heeding the suggestions of the tech companies which stand in opposition to the bills.

Falling down and staying down

So I took the field for a bit of pick-up football (the real kind, natch) on a fine Monday afternoon in a t-shirt reading “HUP!”, ready to do battle for the glory of den Oranje*…after thirty minutes running around in the heat, I stopped to get some water, was back for a few minutes, hustled back for a play on defense, and ow ow ow cramp cramp ow dammit ow.  In one split-second, I’m transformed from Marco van Basten** to an old man in an orange shirt, down on the field, whining and grabbing my right hammy.  Back in the golden days, I’d stretch it out and head back in – now, not so much.  Though it’s much better, it’s still twinging two days later.  Lord, but getting old sucks mightily.

You gotta keep changing

There’ve been some more changes in my life, both off- and on-line, so I feel obliged to begin by giving everyone on the Series of Tubes an update as to my online activities.

I’m no longer on the social network/goal-tracking site 43 Things, thanks to dissatisfaction with their version of customer support.  This was a difficult choice, because against my expectations, and seemingly against the wishes of the Robot Co-op – the amusingly named techno-hipster tank which runs the site, based in (where else?) Seattle – 43 Things became a truly social place, where interacting with my long-distance friends became more important than actually tracking what I was doing with my life’s goals.  I suppose in looking back at it, it’s inevitable that sharing one’s life ambitions in black and white every day with folks who were baring their souls in a similar fashion would create some intimate relationships, even over the ‘Net.  It was really surprising, though; I found lasting friendships and even love on that site, so it wasn’t something that I took lightly in leaving.  I’ll discuss details of why I did so later in subsequent posts, but for now, if you are joining this blog from 43 Things, welcome.

After the boss battle

A quick response on the news story of the past few, which I posted elsewhere.

Recently, I was asked about my opinion of my country’s assassination of Osama bin Laden.

I don’t exult in the assassination of anyone.  Killing one’s enemy is never a path to true superiority.  This doesn’t mean that I had any tears at all for this twisted and murderous soul.  He didn’t hesitate to kill either, and his perversion of a religion noted for its enlightenment and peace-seeking is a true blasphemy.  Whatever fate he now endures is likely too lenient.

Nonetheless, I’ll admit that when I heard the news, I had pretty much no reaction whatsoever.  I think it was a reaction borne of cynicism about my country’s leaders and their motives, a deep-seated disgust at al-Qaeda and their actions, and mostly a sadness that peace in the world seems so elusive.

I do not believe in the wilder conspiracy theories regarding the attacks on my country on 11 Sept 2001.  It was obviously a conspiracy, but one perpetrated by Osama bin Laden’s organization of criminal fanatics, not American government officials.  I do, however, believe that those government officials were both extremely lax in the defense of this country, and extremely quick to take full advantage of the attack to further their own extremist agenda, which involved hegemony over the Middle East to secure its resources, and a global expression of military force; a sort of “perpetual” war.  This doesn’t involve much conjecture on my part; this is stated outright in position statements by these politicians drafted well before the attack.

As a Green, I didn’t think, as so many of my countrymen did, that the election of a Democratic President would change that much, but I did hold out some hope that there may be a marginal improvement over George W. Bush.  There has been some slight improvement in some areas; this definitely isn’t one of them.

I think this was the principal cause of the despair and the numb reaction.  Will we cease being a nation which assassinates and tortures as a matter of affairs of state?  Will we pull our troops out of Afghanistan, where there is no clear motive for our fighting?  Will we be safer, here or abroad?  Will the government return to us our civil liberties which they have stripped since 2001 with an un-Constitutional “PATRIOT Act”, and will they rescind other actions that have marched us toward a police state?  Will we have accountability for the decisions made in this so-called “War on Terror”?  Will the “military-industrial complex” — that war machine that President Eisenhower warned us of so long ago — ever grind to a halt?  Will anything really change?

I fear I know the answer to these questions, and that’s why I didn’t react too much to the death of Osama bin Laden.

How the people do it

Right now in the streets of Cairo, there is a contest going on.  It pits the extremely small ruling class of those who partake in the risks, sacrifices, and significant rewards associated with being a nation-state against the millions who do the same thing except without the rewards part.  It is the privileged few against the oppressed many, and it has finally come to a head.  We have seen this movie before, and we know how it ends…and perhaps the best we can do in the meantime is cheer it from a distance and pray that the final body count is very low.

It would be nice if our government were able to do those same things, but as Obama, the latest Republocrat, has proven, the policy is to go with the devil you know rather than the democracy you don’t.  The United States, you see, is the world’s leading exporter of democracy – but that doesn’t mean we just have to go around granting it to everyone, willy-nilly.  Some are more equal than others, and those in North Africa or the Middle East or elsewhere living on exploitation wages or under oppression in the shadows of modern opulence just have to realize that we can’t allow folks to vote for the wrong guys.  And if the powers-that-be just happen to sell us oil or bomb the right people…well, hey, those folks will just have to understand that democracy ain’t that important.

So it fell to the people of Egypt, just as the people of Tunisia had done only days earlier, to hit the streets and get their democracy the old-fashioned way – albeit with some new-fangled help.  The Series of Tubes conveyed emails, tweets, YouTube videos, and other info without intervening American media gatekeepers, who were busily being schooled in the art of actual journalism by al-Jazeera.  These same tubes had recently carried leaked U.S. diplomatic cables which helped spread some actual truth, or at the absolute least removed the usual amount of varnish from it at a time when it was desperately needed.  (Interestingly, the “public sector” objected to the release of its “private” information, and if you see no problems with the construction of that clause, then you, too, have a career waiting for you in government intelligence.)

Given their experience, I can’t help but wonder if once the various countries are finished, they might not consider coming to this country and teaching us how to do it.

Time, the Avenger

When I was a kid, I had a lot of baseball simulation games.  Most people who had one had APBA Baseball; even actual baseball players would play that one.  (I seem to recall Lenny Dykstra of the Phillies mentioning at one point after a home run, “The last time I hit one like that was in APBA.”)

I was a Statis-Pro Baseball guy.  I would stage numerous games on my bed with my cards all laid out, under the close supervision of my otherwise-complete-antisocial cat, who no doubt looked upon this activity as good reason that he should continue shunning most of humanity. 

Keeping things under wraps

It’s not the case that I haven’t posted here in some ungodly amount of time because I haven’t had anything to say.  I reached of late a sort of odd paralysis of opinion: I have too much to say.  I could at this point broadcast like CNN, 24 hours a day, and probably not quite scratch the surface of what I wish to get out there.  The same affliction is also happening with my podcast.  And in spite of all that, there’s this paycheck I have to earn, kids I have to raise, and so on.

Part of the problem is that what I have to report on is fairly well-known stuff, but the way I’m looking at it doesn’t necessarily conform with the received wisdom on each topic.  There’s a great deal of extra information and consideration that I feel I must bring to the table in order to be understood in my opinions.  People who feel the need to do so are usually visionary or mad.  I’m well aware that no one thinks that they themselves are mad, at least not initially, and I’m not conceited enough to believe that I’m a visionary…so I’ll just say that you have been warned.  At the same time, though, I’m thinking that perhaps if I just write something, get it out there, then maybe some of that pressure might be relieved.

As an example, right now, there is a…conflagration of some kind – it’s difficult to describe it – going on between Wikileaks, Wired, the U.S. Army, the State Department, a schlub named Adrian Lamo, and a previously unknown private by the name of Bradley Manning.  It has the potential, I believe, to drastically change the way that the U.S. government prosecutes wars and retains “state secrets” – which of course would explain why it is so vastly underreported. 

Yeah, like that went well…

My last post here ended with a note about me doing better at keeping in touch.   As that was posted almost a year ago, you can see how well I did with it.

Just answered the door to a couple of Mormon Missionaries.  They asked me if I was religious, and had trouble processing the negative response.  Asked (quite politely) if I wanted to talk, and had no trouble processing the negative response.  Asked if I wanted a card for their website (which I took), and explained that we all have questions, and the website has answers.

The questions are:

• What is the true nature of God?
• Can families be forever together?
• Where do we go after this life?

Dude, these questions are so far from being universal, they don’t even make sense unless you’re religious in the first place.  Honestly, if you’re going to try to convince me you have the answers, at least do me the courtesy of answering the questions I actually ask.  Make it a discussion, not a sales job.

It’s frustrating, because there are plenty of spiritual questions which are relevant to me.

• Is there a purpose to life?
• Is there a purpose to my life, beyond that which I assign to it?
• Is it even possible to experience ‘objective’ events, or is constant confabulation an inherent part of human consciousness?
• Is purpose itself a result of that confabulation?

and so on.  You get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, thinking of starting a photography project, just taking pictures (or movies) of police officers, in public places, doing their jobs.  After all, when I personally observe them they generally are doing their jobs, and they do deserve recognition for that.  Of course, if I were to observe a police officer NOT doing his/her job I’d want to give him/her recognition for that as well.

It’s more relevant than you might think, according to this recent story from WJZ news, which was also discusssed in Gizmodo.  Theoretically, if I do this I’m risking (false) arrest and imprisonment, but I’m doubtful that’s how it would play out.

Waking up

I started this morning deep in dream-shadow.  I woke up trying to detangle the last shreds of REM-sleep from reality.  In the dream I was describing my family to someone.  I had gotten to my uncle, and described him as having four sons.  I named his second oldest grandchild as his oldest, and put her age as significantly lower than it is, and woke up with a strong sense of wrongness.

My first thought was “That’s not right!  George doesn’t have four sons, he has two!”

In reality, George has three.

Dreams do that to me sometimes.

Trying to regain my online presence (obviously I’ve fallen off the net somewhat).  I’m going to make more of an effort to at least occasionally read LJ, and am considering starting a Facebook account, because I’ve been getting lots of invites recently from people I haven’t seen in ages.  I’m weeks behind in e-mail.  If you REALLY need to get hold of me, phone.   If you really need to get hold of me and don’t have my number, either of the other authors on this blog can ‘ping’ me for you.

Will try to do better at being in touch.

Black and blue

I’ve made some various comments elsewhere about the arrest of Dr. Gates, a Harvard professor and nationally-recognized expert in race relations in the U.S.  Everybody has their own opinions on this matter, a lot of it depending on who you believe.  (Fox Noise, as an example, has made their bias pretty clear – as per fucking usual.)

Most are saying that both parties overreacted, which seems safe enough to say.  The thing that I’m not hearing from anyone is that of course, parties to such emotionally loaded situations do overreact – they’re just human beings, after all, and they have human feelings.  It’s natural for a police officer investigating a possible burglary to be on edge; it’s natural for a homeowner to feel anger and fear when challenged as a suspect in his own home.  And because these situations do happen, and because it’s not reasonable to expect people in those situations to deal with it as if they were emotionless aliens from the planet Vulcan, we have rules and laws to govern such interactions.

Let’s assume for the moment that the officer was correct when he said that Dr. Gates was unreasonable, unwilling to listen, and creating a disturbance of some variety when he mouthed off.  On that basis, the officer charged Dr. Gates with disorderly conduct; that is the law that was applied in this case.