Weapons of Mass Disruption

Or read it here.

Your internet playground is being defended, military-style.

"We will deter, prevent, and defend against [cyber] attacks."

He talks about things at stake... like our private information. It got me thinking.

 "I am creating a new office here at the White House that will be led by the Cyber Security Co-ordinator... I will depend on this official in all matters relating to cyber security, and this official will have my full support, and regular access to me."

... a Cyber Czar? 

"We will work with all the key players... to ensure a unified and organized response to future cyber-incidents."

I am taking this as a warning, personally. Obama believes in net neutrality, sure. Politicians say stuff like that, and I believe he means it. "But the task isn't easy." 

He talks about the technological revolution. "A new world awaits." He's right.

I'm not sure if I want in. This Renaissance will inevitably end, as each one has in human history. When it does, do we have an enlightenment to look forward to? ... or will the religious fervor be replaced by a fearful devotion to a new order?

Deja vu, deja fit...

After 9/11, we saw changes happen in the US... the patriot act, tightened security... and it affected Canada a lot. 

The ministry of information, the ministry of peace.

The internet is a global system. It isn't going to be just America and China watching your bits and bytes, eventually the UN will agree that we need a global effort to police the internet. It's already begun in Canada.

And when power gets their fingers into freedom, its game-over.

I'm NOT just talking about P2P sharing, or being able to say whatever you want, or organize an anti-government rally... although these things are important to how our society is changing, and viewing content and technology. 

This is where I will make my most forceful recommendation possible... I need you all to watch RiP!: A Remix Manifesto. 

Let the old ways die out, because content and idea-sharing is the future. This rocking documentary was made on Vancouver Island, and features the ill mash-ups of Girl Talk. Check out this trailer. If it gets you pumped like I did, download it and share it (or remix the chapters on opensourcecinema.org , like the creator asks you to!):

All this net neutrality business seems blah-blah-boring, but I'm actually frightened. In fact, I've decided that I'm getting out of the world of online-banking. And here's why: 

In my 20th Century History class, we had this research assignment: compare news from the time of a major 20th Century event, with later historical analysis. 

I descended into the microfilm labs to scour through seafoam metal drawers, and tiny cardboard boxes with acid-yellow labels. After fiddling with the illuminator, I rolled through pages and pages of the New York Times, looking for the panic during the stock market crash of 1929. 

And the news was a lot like it is now. Shocked, and desperate for solutions. Except instead of banks funding the market, now it's the government and the federal reserve. Or, to be precise -- it has always been at the expense of the people. 

When I read about this, I wasn't as enlightened as I am now about how the system of money works.  (If you want a great way to learn about the omnipresent divinity that is the System of Money, I recommend taking a crash course. It's friendly. Share it on.)

Basically, the stock market crashed because major bankers like Morgan, Chase, and National City Bank left the market quietly one black Thursday in October. When THAT much money leaves the market, the brokers who engineered the "Roaring 20's" needed to make some "margin calls"...

A margin call is basically a broker's way of saying, "The market is sucking, we need to sell your stock... and you haven't made enough on it. So give me the money you owe me"...  Because in the 20's, people started a new kind of credit. Brokers would allow you to buy $1000 in stock for only $100 -- or, on a margin. People did this in DROVES because it was "guaranteed" to make cash.

Until the bankers left. And people jumped out their balcony's in front of their wives and children, because they didn't have that $900 missing from the stock. Put that in today's dollars and you've got a hefty debt.

In the initial news of the day, there is no mention that the bankers left, or of the suicides. Just like you won't hear about it now. The market just "suddenly turned" and it started a chain-reaction of selling that broke the market, and jobs and fortunes were lost. 

And then, as if by deus ex machina -- the bankers met to decide to make a massive investment in the market, to turn it around. And so they gobbled up banks for pennys on the dollar, saving the market... and causing a ten-year depression. 

I should mention that stocks are not the only way that these "key players" make money. Nay, the world is a fabulously mapped game of Risk. 

Nobody ever expects it. The financial attacks on citizens happen a few decades apart. 

Billions for GM. Billions for AIG. 

"We will work with all the key players... to ensure a unified and organized response to future cyber-incidents."

It's only a matter of time before the game goes digital.

Legislating how you type. 

Where you surf.

And download.

And share...

Freedom of speech, 

Freedom of identity,

Freedom of information,

Forget it.

In fact, I shouldn't even be posting this. My name and email address are known to any government official who wants to read my blog, and know my opinions. They could classify me as dangerous if they want, solely because I want to share these links with you. And once they know me, they know my bank. 

Why not wipe the accounts of anyone who might be considered inconvenient? Of course, it would never be the government or banks who actually carry out such a massive cyber-theft... as Obama explains in his speech... it'll be more like Al Quada or something. 

Which is why we (apparently) need some internet protection. As with most cases of freedom vs. over protection, we will probably need some kind of serious incident to solidify our belief in the Cyber Czar.

Because that's how it works.

So are blogs going to be considered Weapons of Mass Disruption? Or profiles? Do I need a disclaimer? Is Facebook really linked to the CIA?

The internet is slowly slipping out of our grip, and we sit idly by, tweeting like twits and Facebooking when our faces should be in books, studying, learning how we can fight the threat of internet freedom legally and collectively. 

The biggest letdown of the 21st century would be our early failure to keep the internet free. Haven't we learned from radio? TV?  Chrissakes, I can't even listen to INTERNET radio, or stream Colbert without adverts. 

Before long, our RFID chips will be our login devices, too.  And then we can look forward to directed advertising and subversive coercion on every website that we surf.