Why the Internet's Great for Totalitarians

Emphasis supplied; more at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_essay_totalitarians/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29 .

Never underestimate the staying power of a geek

Look at Wikileaks and Assange -- they're supremely geeky, and have dedicated their lives to getting the truth out; yet T.P.T.B. in the US have been frighteningly successful in strangling them financially, demonizing them, and limiting the publication and impact of the cables in the US news outlets that most people listen to.

I mean, it's great that you and I now know more truth; but the vast majority of citizens in the US still don't.

And maybe you know how to get around whatever firewalls they might impose on your access, but most others don't. And suppose they just slow down your service a lot? How could most people be sure that was being done to them? And how many could do anything about it? And even if they managed to get it undone, what might they have missed meanwhile?

Consider also the latest proposed FCC regulations decimating hopes for net neutrality (http://act2.freepress.net/sign/real_net_neutrality?source=conf ), and this article -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/25/internet-kill-switch-appr_n_625856.html?ref=fb&src=sp -- about proposed legislation to give the U.S. President the legal power to "kill" the Internet; see also Lawrence Lessig re- the "iPatriot Act" (http://c-cyte.blogspot.com/2008/08/ipatriot-act-ready-and-waiting-for-i.html ) and "Governments' moves to control the web" (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3cb52054-12aa-11e0-b4c8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1BQcxTOnW ).

Sure, it's easier to hope, and do nothing; but having watched one set of rights after another get trampled despite the optimists who claimed it could never happen, I think we need to proactively DEFEND our rights.