Friday, November 18, 2011

What In The Wide Wide World of Sports Is A-Goin' On Here? -OR- Big Yellow Taxi Took Away

I am an anonymous blogger. My reasons have nothing to do with not having the courage to stand up and defend my ideas, except in that I would prefer to do so on a level-playing field. I will stand and deliver to anyone who deigns to pose a question here. Challenge my ideas, not my existence. Anonymously, I don't hide behind the conferred honors or degrees of others that I may or may not possess. You and I are equals. My thinking has been shaped by everything I have experienced, as I've experienced it from myriad sources. I am free to accept or reject the opinions of others without prejudice. I expect NOTHING in exchange for my efforts.

Perhaps if I came from a different place, lived in a different place and interacted with different people, I would see things differently? I don't.

I don't get around as much anymore. I feel no need to travel very far these days. What I once went in search of I find locally or do without. I use the internet for information, research, entertainment, interaction and correspondence. I prefer the freedom and democracy the internet allows.

I've been online longer than most. I've watched online communities built and torn down across decades. I participated in the debates over how we measure progress across virtual platforms. I've lamented the losses each and every time the newest replaces the kludgy but functional old. I've wrestled with those who sought to dominate and control. I've watched the wedges being driven and the splintering that results. I've encouraged continuity and fairness.

Change has been both blessing and curse. Improvements in technology have been dizzying, but I am hardly obsessed or impressed with speed alone. I cheer access. I marvel at the portals at my fingertips. With so many open doors and welcome mats I feel no need to pry my way in to protected areas. I do not fear or automatically suspect the motivations that drive anyone else. I understand, only too well, that there are some who cannot handle their online activities responsibly, but I feel no need to be protected from them by restricting access for all. I vehemently resent being treated like a defenseless child and punished for the actions of others.

I firmly believe in our capacity to distinguish between and deal with benign annoyances as well as the necrotic or malignant who roam our virtual worlds without creating an online police state. As I do in the meat world, I appreciate and support the beneficial influences of reasonable rules and their enforcement. I push back against that which seeks only to control our freedoms.

So where is the problem? How am I a threat?

Visit, frequent, use and support:
American Censorship
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Mozilla
Creative Commons

7 comments:

amber ladeira said...

Watcher,

This is a very serious post, no
wacky or subtle witticisms, just
straight out. I understood and
agreed with about 90% of it, but
fear you may have been hacked or
somehow unjustly criticized by
someone either in person or via
some form of communication.
As your "virtual friend"
I am appalled and maybe a bit worried.
I won't ask what's happened.
***********************************
To my absolute HORROR, I just found out that telephony technology (Skype) is dependent on a system that seems to combine the worst potential/actual features of hijacked servers, malware, cookies,
you name it. While I had it I was
enabling possibly many bad thousands of people to use my little PC as a supernode, bla, bla,
ad nauseam, etc. (You knew about all this way earlier than me.) I've stripped it off of every PC place I could think of, so now the world will be safe from ME--
the LAST person who wants
to hurt anyone other than a
mass murderer, etc.

Boy, it's really hard to be a decent person, sometimes.

(If you feel like responding, I
think you'll do it on my site, maybe my email.)

Best to you and yours, A.

Rehctaw said...

Fret not for me A. I've been criminalized before.

The post concerned the Censorship proposals being batted around D.C.
These Trog slogs are getting wearisome. A great annual occasion?

For the children? For security? For the pecksniffs? Wrap it in the flag?

Behind, as always, is the duty to their corporate benefactors. To control. To harness. To profiteer.

Currently at issue is the same old warmed over censorship and control. Not a thing "new or improved". Their zeal to decide who can do what on the internet is unchanged.

Blacklists and bandwidth and access and "preferred content"....
Hearings are currently underway...

Anonymous said...

Great! thanks for the share!

amber ladeira said...

Thanks, "Chris Matthews"
for telling me yet again something
I didn't know. I like this dense,
professorial style much better
because I can totally understand
it. A friend recently gently
upbraided (actually she used
a braided lariat!!) >kiddin'>
for being an intellectual snob,
which I'm proud of, being kidnapped by ego/vanity for life.
Best, A.

matt jacob said...

a good one.

Phil said...

Fuck 'em all, keep pounding away dude.

Rehctaw said...

Don't look now Busted, but if they succeed in their ham-fisted, corporate written regulations for the inter-tubes. We're both out of a gig.

Happy Thanksgiving!