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-- By NicholasSchaefer - 04 Nov 2016 |
| | That is not to say that legal remedies are of no consequence. Merely because an army lacks the strength to sortie means not that it should abandon the castle’s defenses; merely because Alice has not the perception needed to assert her future does not imply the Chesire wants for truth. But wisdom is lost on those unable to listen. |
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< | The accelerating social transformations and exponential population growth of the past century, together with the recent emergence of The Net, have brought upon us a turning. And though to me the future seems terrifyingly bleak, I cannot say it is completely without hope. |
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> | The accelerating social transformations and exponential population growth of the past century, together with the recent emergence of The Net, have brought upon us a turning. And though to me the future seems terrifyingly bleak,
… well, I can only say that it is in fact completely without hope. |
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| | “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 2
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| | The Snowden saga exemplifies what occurs when shortcomings of law and societal indifference fall parallel. We, the masses, learned the truth, yet within minutes disregarded what was just discovered. The truth is simply that: the truth. It is only as a product of our collective response to the acquisition of knowledge that freedom may result. The conscious dismissal of revealed truth is an acceptance of the control over our lives ensconced in an international oligarchy. |
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< | The foundation of this indifference and acceptance reaches deeper than complacency. We are happy, and thus we are blind. |
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> | Moglen promulgated the idea that once parents understand the privacy intrusions upon their children, they will “see the light” and fight against the onslaught of technology. I would argue the opposite. What parent, honestly, does not WANT to KNOW where their children are at all times? Few parents, I am sure, are concerned that their kids are apt to overthrow a government. No — instead, they worry about sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. To track one’s child at all times — that is every mother’s wet dream.
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| | “Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” 3
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| | Any revolution, intellectual or political or otherwise, cannot find momentum without impetus. A society consisting of a happy majority, and which effectively misdirects the anger of disparate minorities, is missing such an internal spark. Look to populist revolutions of the past and you find that without discontent there is nothing. |
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< | As such, there must be an external stimulus to provide the needed spark for change. |
| | “It is easy, simplistic, and totally without value to merely curse the darkness...” 3
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| | Without the understanding and desire of the masses to strike out against the incursions of despotism, all we can feasibly hope for at this point is to continue preserving the castle walls. To effect the sociopolitical repositioning crucial to our ability to correctly choose which path to follow—from the fork in the road at which we now find ourselves—requires more than just the Law, and more than high-level technological know-how. |
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< | To internally initiate a mass movement away from that which gives us happiness is contrary to human nature. We live, entranced, in an ever-shifting wonderland. Alice, similarly adrift, was in no position to receive advice from a cat. The prescient Chesire sensibly chose to withhold its advice until such time as the girl could articulate, from within, the future she envisioned. |
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< | However, there will one day come a time when an external impetus provides a real potential for societal upheaval. Such an event may come in any form and is too variable to predict; the only requirement is that it must be strong enough to effect a mass reconfiguration of perspective, sufficient to jolt us from our state of content stupor. |
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> | Not until we understand where the paths before us lead are we ready to receive wisdom. It is a shame, therefore, that we no longer have eyes to see.
So yes — this is epigram and nothing else. When speaking of the hopelessness of our future, what use are facts? We have passed the point of no return with respect to climate change. So it is with the internet. To use another famous quote: ignorance is bliss. |
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< | Not until we understand where the paths before us lead are we ready to receive wisdom. I hope only that when this passes, we will still have eyes to see. |
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> | We are doomed. It is not a matter of IF. It is a matter of WHEN.
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