[Wsis-pct] HR 4077 (was Re: [WSIS CS-Plenary] FBI Seizes Indymedia Servers in the UK)

[Taran Rampersad]

Richard Stallman wrote:

>    We're on the same wavelength in the context of the WGIG. However, this
>    battle is in the United States. Those who are opposing the bill need
>    support. The derivative education of the public and beaurecracy is not
>    without value. Speaking in generalities lends to a consistent approach,
>    but it does not always lead to timely results.
>
>I've seen this going on for years, and most people always focus on
>trying to defeat a specific bill because of its specifics.  This does
>not build a movement to resist all such bills, and the result is we start
>from zero each time.
>  
>
I respect the fact that you have been doing this for years and I am not
challenging your experience.

I'm discussing the fact that unchallenged, such bills are an issue that
must be dealt with simply to express the distaste for the bill. I'm not
too interested in building a movement; I think a properly educated
public will form itself into a movement naturally.

As far as starting from zero each time - I cannot dismiss your
experience. But I will say that I believe that we never 'start from
zero' each time, since the people who challenge these bills grow with
the challenges. I will also add that the international community itself
has little to do to affect a change in this regard. These Bills have a
negative impact on the very technologies that we are using right now. It
would be hard to have any sort of movement if it becomes fragmented
because of lack of attention to appropriate details.

Further, this is a bill in a specific country. The United States. We
cannot change the world if we do not maintain our own back yards. The
people in the United States who are challenging the bill deserve the
support of the international community, but more importantly, they
deserve the support of their own countrymen.

Would it be right for me to allow people to cut down trees in my own
backyard if I am trying to save the Amazon rainforests?

As a Native American once said:

"Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound
together. All things connect." -- Chief Seattle

We never start from zero; we always start from relative zero. I do not
have your experience, but I have failed enough to know that each failure
has made me more experienced. The same applies to societies and
movements. If this were not true, people wouldn't be investing in
Silicon Valley anymore.

-- 
Taran Rampersad

cnd at knowprose.com

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"Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase...The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive"
— Frank Herbert, 'Dune'