We no longer live entirely in the 'real' world. There is an entire cyber landscape that's constantly expanding and evolving. It is also becoming clearer with each passing week that this conception of cyberspace as separate from the 'real' world is not only dated, but dangerous. News, games, porn, forums, and advertising don't add up to this collective conscious that has begun to grow. The Internet is more than just the sum of its parts. There's a heartbeat beginning to pulse and, like Poe, "I thought the heart must burst!" And it's beginning to. I think what is happening with Anonymous, in Egypt, and all over the world is only the start.
The Internet has offered a breakthrough in global relations. Like the telephone before it, the Internet is connecting more people from farther places than ever before, and it's doing it faster than most can imagine. Ideas are spreading like a plague, but Huxley need fear not, for I believe that this is good. That is not to say that all of the ideas, or even most of them are intelligent or desirable, but through the process of globalization, like a water filter, the bad ideas will be taken out, removed by the system that spawned them and eventually the good ideas will triumph.
This view may seem idyllic, naïve even, but it is not so. Anonymous makes many claims to a Hive-Mind. But what seems to be the case to me is a truer democracy than many we see in the free world. Those whose ideas are well received are the ones who organize Anonymous. If any member disagrees, their vote is cast by a lack of participation, or in an open debate. I wouldn't go so far as to say that anyone should take after Anonymous (at least not yet) but the example that is being set and the groundwork is being laid in people's minds.
This view may seem idyllic, naïve even, but it is not so. Anonymous makes many claims to a Hive-Mind. But what seems to be the case to me is a truer democracy than many we see in the free world. Those whose ideas are well received are the ones who organize Anonymous. If any member disagrees, their vote is cast by a lack of participation, or in an open debate. I wouldn't go so far as to say that anyone should take after Anonymous (at least not yet) but the example that is being set and the groundwork is being laid in people's minds.
A global democracy that votes instantly as the software is downloaded and the voice is heard. There will be no way to rig the votes because every voice will speak at once. The majority will be heard because that is the way the system works. There is no delay; no hanging chad. The only way it will work is the only way it can. People who want to be heard will have to allow others to be heard. Not everyone will agree and certainly not everyone will support the majority, but that will be part of the beauty of the system. They will be given the chance to sway the vote.
Information wants to be free, it wants to spread. The network wants to grow, and people want to help it do so. Though this isn't true of all parties involved in this changing of the guard, which is something I probably should have touched on before now. The movement is predominantly made up of the ready minded, the intelligent and those willing to find, accept, and partake in changes as they occur. Most likely a younger generation, but that is the way that is must always be. The elder lay the foundation for a rising from the youth.
Much of what the Internet fosters (by way of simply existing) are things that I think the Founding Father's of the USA would approve of, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." But this ideal, this truth is more universal than that. From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, Article 19 "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." To the French Revolution's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen "The free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, print freely, save [if it is necessary] to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases determined by the law."
Which brings me to my next point. Make no mistake about it: This is a revolution. I'll say it again because it bears repeating:
THIS IS A REVOLUTION.
It is not violent, yet. And it doesn't need be, if the governments will learn to adapt and change with the people. John F. Kennedy's words almost seem prophetic to me, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." These DDoS attacks that Anonymous has been executing are nothing more than the sit-ins of the 21st century. That was a revolution of sorts, and an even greater precedent has already been set by another group.
Egypt has set the bar high for what the Internet can mean in this new era. These protests and the over throw of the old government were not only a result of the shut down of all of Egypt's global communication, but this termination of service was the thing that snapped tensions long held at bay by a powerful regime. There are new developments technologically that were a direct result of the events in Egypt. The primary one that comes to mind is Open Mesh. The site will give a better description than I'd be able to, but the bottom line is that there will be no shutting down the interconnection of people by wireless means sometime in the near future.
No longer will national or even continental governments be enough to take care of the population. No longer will dictators and corrupt politicians be able to last once the majority has a voice. People will govern one another, a democracy truer than any other. The transition likely won't be smooth, it won't be fast, and I doubt that any current government will allow it to happen peacefully, but there is no doubt in my mind that it will happen.
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