Like many, I want free and open discourse, for myself and for
others.
Open discourse can be stifled in many ways. Yes, censorship and
authoritarianism can stifle discourse. But the net has shown
itself remarkably resistant to such efforts. In fact, fax and
email are credited with playing a large part in the downfall of
the Soviet Union.
Chaos, intimidation, and vigilantes also stifle open discourse.
Stifle it tremendously. Observing Usenet leads me to believe
these pose a far greater danger to open discourse on Usenet than
do censorship and authority.
The amount of useful discourse on Usenet in the past couple of
years has not grown in proportion to the growth of the Internet.
Even taking into account that much of the growth has been in the
Web, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that Usenet as a free
medium is being destroyed by chaos and intimidation. Freedom is
being trampled.
Free me. Free me from chaos.
Yes, Mussolini made the trains run on time: often cited because
it's an example of how you can't look at only one aspect of a
situation, of how a dictator can look good from some points of
view. Often overlooked is that making the trains run on time
provided real freedom to some people. This ambiguity is real,
and no amount of explanation or philosophical absolutism will
eliminate the ambiguity.
Freedom is not simple. It's always a balance, always a loss for a
gain. And it's not a gain of freedom for a loss of something
else -- it's a trade of one freedom for another. Never simple.
Always ambiguous.
Edward Reid <edward@paleo.greensboro.fl.us>