Your Rights and why they matter

  Throughout history, the Powers that Be have attempted to control the individual. This has taken on many different shapes. In the old days, they simply flogged you if you refused to do as the leaders said. Thomas Hobbes described over-zealous big government as a huge beast, the Leviathan, and this was over three hundred years ago.

The 20th century has seen several large-scale attempts at controlling the thoughts and actions of individuals. The Soviet Union under Stalin developed into a machine for thought control. The Third Reich 1933-1945 also trumpeted out the existence of only one single acceptable truth. The German Democratic Republic - DDR - had an intricate system of informers at every workplace, every school, every university, who regularly reported any and every deviation made by the citizens.

What this teaches us is that our rights to express ourselves, read which ever books we like, and think what ever thought we please, is a precious thing that must never be surrendered. It also teaches us to uphold a healthy sense of skepticism towards our leaders and bureaucrats in general.
 

Today, keeping the citizens at bay takes on more ingenious forms. All over the world, politicians and paper-pushers are growing ever more scared at the implications of the information society. In Sweden, a recently revealed opportunity to buy un-taxed cigarettes from abroad via the Internet, caused an outcry from the government. Imagine the horrors now when the broader base of individuals are beginning to access the Net. They can say what they want and write what they want - and all this without the governments knowing one tiny bit about it!!

Some countries don't beat around the bush with their fears. China and Singapore have routing computers that deny people access to sites that are deemed unsuitable, even to such completely harmless stuff as Playboy Magazine. North Korea and Vietnam have the safest policy so far - they simply don't tell people that there is a thing called the Internet. What the citizens do not know cannot hurt the leaders.
 

 

In the democratic countries of the world, the situation might look different, but not different enough for many users of computers and the Internet to feel safe about it. The most blatant attempt at regulating the online activities came in the so-called Communications Decency Act (CDA) in 1996. Fortunately, the US Supreme Court found this piece of legislation to in violation of the constitution. Decency is clearly NOT a factor in determining what gets to be published on the Net.

We are, however, still not safe from this kind of anal-retentant behaviour, even without the CDA. Recently in California, an information film about detecting female breast cancer was stopped because it contained (are you ready for this?) pictures of breasts. Isn't that amazing? How are we supposed to teach women about the most common form of female cancer if we cannot show a breast? If so, let there be no surprise about teenage pregnancies if we cannot show a condom, or tell our sons and daughters how to use them.

This particular problem stems from the repressive view on sexuality that is prevailing in the US, at least in public forums. However, similar actions can readily be taken against anything and everything that the Powers that Be find - you got it - decent. And here I mean 'decent' in the broadest possible definition. All evidence shows that you, as a user of computers and the Internet, simply have no reason what so ever to trust your government, be it on a national, regional, or local scale. All organizations have internal reasons for expanding their size and influence. If they have the ability to control you, rest assured that they will try. Be aware!
 

 
  Apart from keeping an eye on your ISP and local influencials, you should also consider encrypting your email and your hard drive. What you write and send is your business. A good program for encrypting your email comes from  Pretty Good Privacy. Take a look at it. As for "encrypting" your hard drive, this would mean password protecting your whole system. There are many different programs to help you with this. Try looking it up via the many search engines, some of which I link to from my  links page.