Monday 25 July 2011

Closing the 'Net'?

"Liberty is always unfinished business."
Anon
I have deliberately not posted on the sad events in Norway - others have, I believe, said all that is to be said, coupled with which there has been a certain amount of hyperbole included; also bearing in mind that what little I have seen on television and read in the press has appeared to be the outpourings of opinion, rather than facts. Unfortunately what the events in Norway have done is to provide politicians with the ideal opportunity to control that which they fear most - free speech.

In May the Guardian reported that Nicholas Sarkozy had called for international regulation of the web, at the G8 summit, something David Cameron was reported to be against. Forward to July and the Guardian reports that David Cameron is in favour of press regulation, but one regulated by an independent body that is free from government interference - although we have yet to see any 'independent' body that is free from government interference, one way or the other. The interconnection between the media and internet cannot be denied, as invariably that which appears in/on the media is, within minutes - if not seconds - placed on the internet by observers world-wide. Because the internet is a global medium logic would dictate that it cannot be caged within national borders.

I have on many occasions accused politicians of wishing to control how we speak, act and think; yet further reflection showed that restrictions on the freedoms of speech and action are meaningless without similar restrictions on the freedom of thought. Politicians may attempt to restrict our freedom of thought by control of the media and their output, but that does not stop the individual's ability to think and thus question the rights or wrongs on any subject.

Once either media or internet is regulated, the result is censorship with the resultant loss of free speech - and if effected it will no doubt be done in the name of prevention of terrorism and the need to negate right-wing activism - a label being applied to Anders Behring Breivik. I have no doubt that the label 'right-wing' that is being applied has been orchestrated by government officials in briefings to the media - yet no-one seems to have queried the fact that left-wing groups, such as Bader Meinhof, also committed mass murder - and the difference is.......?

Not in any way condoning the actions of Anders Behring Breivik, however is it any wonder that a man becomes so mentally confused within his own mind about the rights and wrongs of multiculturalism and what he sees as the damage to the society of his country, acts as he did? Politicians may regulate all they wish but they cannot eradicate the situation whereby one man, or one group, go on the rampage because they see their elected politicians ignoring situations such as this - which demonstrates that whilst actions of word and deed can be controlled, or at least attempts made to control the power of word and deed, the power of thought cannot; and it needs to be remembered that from the power of thought comes the power of action.

It may be that incidents such as occured in Norway could be negated by politicians ceasing their practise of obfuscation and alternately being open and honest; by ceasing to impose their ideas, ideas often originating from bureaucrats social policy dictators who in turn are funded by governments, on the societies they are meant to serve; and lastly by seeking the approval of those they are meant to serve prior to introducing any law or policy - laws and policies that have been proven to be unworkable and ill-thought through in the first place.


Update: A similar view but expressed much better than I is over at Klein Verzt.

8 comments:

PeterCharles said...

I suspect governments have not yet introduced full scale internet censorship because it can not be done with 100% effectiveness. I would guess they could probably achieve around 25% and if you could add a regulated media into the mix they would probably be able to achieve 60% - 70% effectiveness as estimates suggest is the case in China.

We in the UK already have one mechanism in place, based on child protection, the IWF blacklist that all ISPs have to carry to ostensibly block sites with potential child porn images. You may remember the furore when an iconic rock album cover featured on Wikipedia got added to the list. There is also the acknowledged but little spoken of item that the Home Office can add sites to the list for reasons of, you guessed it, 'national security'.

It is naturally at best an ineffective procedure as using an anonymising proxy server will defeat the list every time, for 'ordinary' folk it would work quite well but anyone reasonably computer literate wouldn't be slowed at all.

We also know that computer and telephone usage is extensively logged and available for closer inspection, just as emails, telephone calls and textings are routinely scanned for key words and phrases.

At present government is doing a lot of watching and waiting, but not much acting as far as we can see. Don't expect it to last.

Kleinverzet said...

Thanks WfW, for the compliments as well as the link.

Yours also is worth nicking, but it fits better in a different post I already had in the works. Saves me some work as well. Thanks for that, too.

Anonymous said...

I walk up the street and speak to people. They have not got a clue!

DeeDee99 said...

We -ie Europe - with the connivance of the political elite of all countries - is rapidly becoming a colony of Islam. It WILL lead to violence; that has been predicted for a long time by anyone with an ounce of commonsense because you cannot displace an indigenous population with hordes of foreigners who will not change their cultural practices and integrate without resistence.

I don't doubt that our politicians and their authorities will seek to control information and discussion. The accusation of 'racist' no longer works to stifle debate - so now they will stifle free speech.

I don't condone for one minute what ABB did but it was inevitable that somewhere there would be a violent reaction to the undemocratically imposed policy of multiculturalism - it just happened to be Norway - this time.

cosmic said...

DeeDee99,

I think it's a more general problem. We elect governments, really as elective dictators for five years. This is OK when there's a difference between the parties. When they sing from the same hymn sheet on so many important matters, it means the political establishment drifts off one way and the populace another and the mechanism of GEs can't do anything about this.

The EU is the same scheme written larger.

This is all very dangerous, as eventually the tensions are bound to resolve themselves. Censoring views is really wiring down the safety valves.

We need some sort of reform, referism or something along the lines of the Swiss model.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

CP: I think their 'watching and waiting' has just come to an end - see later post......

KV: Help yourself..............

A: forgive the mixed metaphor, but there is non so blind as will not hear......

DD99 & c: You are both right in the comments you post. The elective dictatorship and the immigration/integration problem mean that either could be the instigator of a revolution in which blood is spilt.

TomTom said...

In Norway, Lawyers says "My client is insane"

Humane Norway cannot try an insane man and risk him serving only 21 years.....

Declare him insane and lock him away in a mental institution with no outside contact but lots of drugs.....it worked in the USSR and in Stig Larson books.......so no doubt it will help to "lock him in his mind" with drugs

Anonymous said...

Must read as a reminder

The Annihilation of Civilizations

Political Islam 10 August 2011
By Bill Warner


By the time Mohammed died in 632 AD, Islam had used persuasion and jihad to subjugate Arabia. The annihilation of native Arabic culture is Sunna, the perfect example for all times and all Muslims. Said another way, the political theory of Islam is annihilation of Kafir civilization. How well did this political theory work out in history? Is this theory of annihilation at work tod

http://europenews.dk/en/node/46202