Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Political Repression? (Was: Re: More DeCSS hypocrisy)
Author: Kendall Posted: 8/25/2000; 10:39:33 AM Topic: More DeCSS hypocrisy Msg #: 20221 (In response to 20211) Prev/Next: 20220 / 20222
I promised my grandfather that when the political repression starts here, I will stand in its way. To not publish that link would be giving in to the forces of repression. I won't do that.This is a nice sentiment, but I wonder if it includes non-technology stuff? Surely your "ancestors in virtual slavery in Europe" didn't have technology freedom *primarily* in mind? (Even if they would extend their views to include technology.)
There's been lots of political repression in this country recently. I've written extensively about it in Philadelphia at Monkeyfist. Dru Jay, of Misnomer fame, was in Philly with me, and he took pictures of the kind of political repression that we both witnessed directly.
In addition, for all of us who make a living with technology, the ways it's being used to *foster* political repression are really scary, and something we should, in my view, pay more attention to. The Feds have admitted to lots of Web site/mailing list monitoring, to say nothing of all the "smart weapons" technology that are non-lethal, which only makes them more often used.
The Web community, especially those of us who are our own publishers, has a responsibility to talk about *all* kinds of political repression, if, that is, we want to be taken seriously when we talk about technology-related kinds.
Kendall Clark, The Monkeyfist Collective
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