WOW!!
This sounds like a bad movie!
(Not that ‘Fight Club’ was a bad movie – just that a ‘Government enforced’ version of ‘Fight Club existence’ would be a very, very bad movie!!!)
This is beyond comprehensible!
OK… I’ll slow down enough to fill you in on what I’m talking about.
Imagine a dystopia where the government has a ‘black list’ of things you are not allowed to do and not allowed to talk about. Or, perhaps, a list of websites you are not allowed to click on. They are still visible, you are just not allowed to click on them. IF you breach this strict prohibition, you will be hunted down and punished, with the full weight of the state hurled at you to crush you.
Pretty bad, right? Where would you say this is taking place?
Well, on the surface of it, you might suggest places like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and, perhaps, Pakistan. Yet, I speak of a different place…
Perhaps more clues are needed in order for you to recognize the country I speak of: would it be helpful if I told you that there, this ‘black list’ is actually secret?
Yes, you read this correctly: nobody KNOWS they have broken the rules until AFTER they have broken the rules!
Do you not believe such a thing could happen today???
Well, you would be wrong.
Not only does it happen in our world, it is happening as we are having our virtual conversation: and it is happening in a ‘Western Democracy’!!!
The ‘black list’?
Is it some ‘democracy-in-name-only, a country stiffeled under the yoke of the EU oppression? As in the manner of ‘Prison? Then is the world one…in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’worst!’
I’m sorry to disappoint you – I am not speaking of a EU nation-state.
I speak of no other place than Australia!!!
The Sydney Morning Herald from 17. March 2009 reports:
‘The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.
Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark’s list of banned websites.’
Aside: Just in case you happened to be in Denmark, or wanted to travel there, and did NOT want to run afoul of the local laws by accidentally clicking on one of the thousands of websites banned in Denmark, the ‘Wikileaks’ page listing them is here.
But, please, consider the implications of this action!!!
- A number (a very big number) of websites get banned – people get fined for accessing them, and their internet providers are legally obligated to monitor their subscribers’ activity online and notify the government (and provide them with the necessary documentation, to be used in court) if ANY one of their subscribers accesses one of these sites.
- An internet website publishes this list of banned websites: after all, people ought to KNOW where they are not allowed to click – right???
- The internet pages actually providing this public notice are themselves banned – for the very reason that they ARE informing people WHAT is and is not legal!!!
In other words, our governments are wrapping themselves in the cloak of righteous indignation over the ‘problem of internet pedophilia’ and banning websites, left, right and centre (though, mostly right of centre)…NOT just sites that (horrid and reprehensible as they are) abuse kids. And, to make sure that nobody notices EXACTLY WHAT it is they are banning, they will ALSO ban any pages which actually tell people what it is that is banned!!!
So, the first time you will find out that a site is ‘blacklisted’ is when you loose your internet service and get dragged to court for having ‘clicked on something’!!!
And, if you think that only websites that contain ‘child pornography’ (or whatever euphemism you want to use for this horrible, horrible abuse of kids) are being put onto these ‘blacklists’, please, think again (my emphasis):
‘The site has also published Thailand’s internet censorship list and noted that, in both the Thai and Danish cases, the scope of the blacklist had been rapidly expanded from child porn to other material including political discussions.
Already, a significant portion of the 1370-site Australian blacklist – 506 sites – would be classified R18+ and X18+, which are legal to view but would be blocked for everyone under the proposal. The Government has said it was considering expanding the blacklist to 10,000 sites and beyond.’
To infinity 10,000 sites – and beyond!!!
‘EFA said the Government’s “spin is starting to wear thin” and it could no longer be denied that the ACMA blacklist targets a huge range of material that is legal and even uncontroversial.’
And, yes, Australia’s ‘blacklist’ of banned websites is also very, very secret. As a matter of fact, the article suggests that it was the fear that the Aussie list would also ‘get published’ which prompted the Australian government to ban (block access to) sites which list the Danish ‘blacklist’.
Is THIS what our democracies, the only defenders of the individual’s inherent rights to make his or her own choices, have been reduced to?!?!? If so, then I want a ticket out of here!
(Sorry, I get really, really worked up over this stuff – this is NOT just some hypothetical thing, this is a REAL THREAT to our freedoms! Now, let’s get some of you people ‘out there’ – who have the right background to make this technically possible – to start working on a censorship-proof subnet… which will, eventually, replace the now so obviously dying internet‘!)
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
March 18, 2009 at 19:19
“language controls thought and thought controls language”
– george orwell
March 18, 2009 at 21:53
Xanthippa:
These aspects of the internet have come to occupy my mind more and more of late. It seems that the internet has been allowed to flourish just long enough to destroy the traditional print media, and is now being clamped down upon and used as an instrument of social control.
Notwithstanding all its promise for access to information, freedom of speech, and the formation of online communities, the internet is simultaneously the ideal medium for disinformation, surveillance and balkanization of opinion.
The solution to this problem is not technological. The global plutocracy controls the production and distribution of technology, and will always find ways to circumvent technology or adapt it to their own purposes.
If we let them.
And the solution is not regulatory. The global plutocracy controls the legislation and enforcement of laws, and will always find ways to circumvent laws or adapt them to their own purposes.
If we let them.
The solution must come from the hearts of the people. They must be woken up.
The people must cast off the narcissism and learned helplessness imposed upon them by the schools and the media. They must become passionate about the defence of their freedom. They must reclaim sovereignty over their own bodies and minds, demand the right to privacy, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to own property, freedom of speech, freedom of information, freedom of association, and all the rest.
If the people do that, the government will be more cowed by the fury and power of an armed, informed and self-reliant public than they are tempted by the wealth of plutocrats. Only in this way can the politicians of today be induced to side with the people against the plutocrats, as they did in the days of the American Revolution.
If the people fail to do that, the plutocrats will create their new world order in the image of ancient Egypt — where Pharaoh owned everything and everyone, and was worshipped as a god — supported by advanced weapons and information technologies, which will seem like magic to an increasingly uneducated and down-trodden public.
This is the big picture. This is what is at stake.
Internet censorship, the perversion of copyright, network-enabled surveillance, and related issues fit together to form a very important part of the picture, but this is still only one theatre of conflict in a global crisis of freedom, which touches every aspect of our lives and threatens everything that makes life worth living.
Xanthippa says:
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!
Of course, being ‘correct’ is not the same thing as ‘having a solution’.
My problem is that even though I am shouting as loudly as I can, I am finding ‘shouting’ does NOT ‘wake the hearts’ of most people. Some – yes. Most – no!!!
Yet, there MUST BE a way to ‘fix’ this: because if there isn’t, then life is no longer worth living. And, I DO have kids – and I WANT very, very much, for life to be ‘worth living’ for THEM!!! Therefore, I MUST find a solution….
Please, indulge me in this….
I agree with all that you have said.
But, there is more to people: there is ‘smart’ people, too. And, ‘smart people’ have always understood the value of freedom of speech (and thought) and the value in free exchange of ideas and information. Perhaps there are not ‘enough’ of us to form a majority, but there sure are a lot of us!
And, there is a second type of ‘people’: people who like to ‘be in on secret things’. This is the appeal of most religions, when it comes right down to the very deep roots of it…. But, most of these people also like to be ‘in’ on all kinds of ‘secret’ things, even if secular, as long as these have an impact on the power-structure of the day!
Now, I do not think I can wave a magic wand and ‘wake the majority of people up’ to the ‘dangers of over-intrusive government’! Not even a ‘critical mass’ of people…
But, I DO think we have a sufficient number of people who DO want to do SOMETHING about this in order to get some ‘stuff’ happening! Something which will be 100% non-violent, technology-based, and which WILL allow some people ‘in’ on a ‘secret’ way to communicate…. A way where one HAS TO be made to understand these dangers of ‘over-intrusion’…
And, once such a ‘secret’ exists, the much more numerous number of people that wish to be ‘special’ by being ‘in’ on the ‘secret’ will allow such a technology to envelop the Earth.
It’ll be a bit of ‘using’ each other: the one group WILL get ‘in’ on ‘stuff’ – increasing their ‘specialness quotient’ (as per Scott Adams) – and, in return, these people will be made to understand the dangers of censorship and over-regulation … the ‘bannies’ philosophy in general.
THIS is the WAY in which the awareness of what is happening can be raised.
THIS is the WAY in which the hearts CAN be awoken…
Because, let’s face it. Most people will NOT want to open their eyes….unless it MARKS them as ‘special’…
I know, I am a bit of a realist…optimistic, but a realist.
But, HOW ELSE could we EVER get enough people even interested in their own fate long enough to make them drop their blinders??? If you have ideas, I am VERY interested..
April 15, 2009 at 10:19
If you want to hear a reader’s feedback 🙂 , I rate this post for 4/5. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn google to find the missed bits. Thanks, anyway!
Xanthippa says:
Thank you!
YES!!! I DO want feedback!
It is difficult for me to gauge if I am tedious by providing too much detail – or repeating ‘common knowledge’ bits – or if I am falling into the trap of thinking that because I know something, then automatically everyone knows it…
So, what ‘bits’ did I miss?
By the way: this story is EVOLVING and GROWING daily!!! There is SO MUCH MORE on this topic I have to cover…but there are other ‘things’ I also have to write up!
Therefore, I would appreciate feedback on BOTH the ‘focus’ or ‘topic’ that people find most important, as well as the detail level to be included… and, really, anything else that would help me make this a better place!