Normally I avoid the subject of freedom at all costs.
But the Google/China standoff has made it really important to say something, because I’m watching this in more bated breath than Haiti.
Most people, upon meeting me, don’t realize that I burn with certain questions, one of them being “What does it mean to be Free?”
I was very lucky to have a ridiculous amount of Internet access from the earliest age possible. My father is a hardware nut, and my mother a programmer, so it was normal that I would get these sorts of things (cellphones they don’t get though…) I was able to realize (being very retro here) that AskJeeves was better because it was a meta-searchengine, and that because search engines sucked, you should display results in 100s, not in 10s. I also understood I could look up anything, including religion, sexuality, fanfiction, anything. I understood this very early on.
It gave me the ability to look at the world with some more open eyes, even if I didn’t understand it (and still don’t), I was able to see that there was a broader world out there, and that I had and will always have choices.
Google made that process better. It made the choices more apparent (around the same time I stopped reading fanfiction, for the most part). Not everyone will use those choices wisely. That’s not the point. The point is, for those people who will: It will be life changing. It is the difference of knowing there is someone out there who cares, who is your emotional and intellectual equal, who cares about the same issues as you, and then being able to connect. It is the difference between learning a new fact that makes your argument and your person through the expansion of your intellectual abilities stronger. And is knowing that the people you meet will slowly bolster you. Losing that can kill people and can kill societies: or it can rebirth them.
I was talking with some people last night: A chunk of them blog and wanted to know if I read their blogs (I’ll come back to you in a bit)*, and I didn’t want to tell them that even though I can’t feel what they write right now (personal reasons), it’s adminrable that they do. They were fighting a good fight from a niche community. And they allowed their voices to be heard and to grow from it.
That may be what Google gives up if they leave China. And it wouldn’t be for 7 people. It would be for billions including millions of students, all of whom are like me on some practical level. I know I know nothing of the world. The only way to know is to put yourself out there.
Even so, Google is hacking back. I’m not sure what I think about a huge company just peering inside other large companies and potentially large governments. Yes, I know their policy is “Do No Evil.” However, to be free is to recognize that one is small and that I can come together with others for mutual benefits (usually to protect myself from harm) (This is Locke people, I accept Locke.) How does Google manage to protect my freedom without being, well, oppressive in some sort of utilitarian sense. They have my information, and I wonder what could cause them to turn it over. Right now, nothing.
I’m so sad when I watch this- I don’t know if there is anything I can do except watch and wait, and maybe want to cry a little. I want freedom to win. Freedom to be whatever I want to be. Freedom for everyone to be what they want to be: and that requires information to flow.
I wish someone would translate this into Chinese: If you are in China and can see this: The thing that unites you is that you are all a little different, that in fact is normal. It is the ability to find out together what those differences are and then to repsect them: That is what makes the Empire strong. I wish those my own age so much luck in all of this, because I know that this one of those defining expeirneces that will affect you for the rest of your lives. May you rise above it and change societies and governments for the better because of it. May you bring some sense of liberty and Joy, a sense of better understanding of who you are as individuals, and therefore what China and the Chinese people are, as you scale the wall. Good Luck!
*You get your own post.
Freedom and Google
Normally I avoid the subject of freedom at all costs.
But the Google/China standoff has made it really important to say something, because I’m watching this in more bated breath than Haiti.
Most people, upon meeting me, don’t realize that I burn with certain questions, one of them being “What does it mean to be Free?”
I was very lucky to have a ridiculous amount of Internet access from the earliest age possible. My father is a hardware nut, and my mother a programmer, so it was normal that I would get these sorts of things (cellphones they don’t get though…) I was able to realize (being very retro here) that AskJeeves was better because it was a meta-searchengine, and that because search engines sucked, you should display results in 100s, not in 10s. I also understood I could look up anything, including religion, sexuality, fanfiction, anything. I understood this very early on.
It gave me the ability to look at the world with some more open eyes, even if I didn’t understand it (and still don’t), I was able to see that there was a broader world out there, and that I had and will always have choices.
Google made that process better. It made the choices more apparent (around the same time I stopped reading fanfiction, for the most part). Not everyone will use those choices wisely. That’s not the point. The point is, for those people who will: It will be life changing. It is the difference of knowing there is someone out there who cares, who is your emotional and intellectual equal, who cares about the same issues as you, and then being able to connect. It is the difference between learning a new fact that makes your argument and your person through the expansion of your intellectual abilities stronger. And is knowing that the people you meet will slowly bolster you. Losing that can kill people and can kill societies: or it can rebirth them.
I was talking with some people last night: A chunk of them blog and wanted to know if I read their blogs (I’ll come back to you in a bit)*, and I didn’t want to tell them that even though I can’t feel what they write right now (personal reasons), it’s adminrable that they do. They were fighting a good fight from a niche community. And they allowed their voices to be heard and to grow from it.
That may be what Google gives up if they leave China. And it wouldn’t be for 7 people. It would be for billions including millions of students, all of whom are like me on some practical level. I know I know nothing of the world. The only way to know is to put yourself out there.
Even so, Google is hacking back. I’m not sure what I think about a huge company just peering inside other large companies and potentially large governments. Yes, I know their policy is “Do No Evil.” However, to be free is to recognize that one is small and that I can come together with others for mutual benefits (usually to protect myself from harm) (This is Locke people, I accept Locke.) How does Google manage to protect my freedom without being, well, oppressive in some sort of utilitarian sense. They have my information, and I wonder what could cause them to turn it over. Right now, nothing.
I’m so sad when I watch this- I don’t know if there is anything I can do except watch and wait, and maybe want to cry a little. I want freedom to win. Freedom to be whatever I want to be. Freedom for everyone to be what they want to be: and that requires information to flow.
I wish someone would translate this into Chinese: If you are in China and can see this: The thing that unites you is that you are all a little different, that in fact is normal. It is the ability to find out together what those differences are and then to repsect them: That is what makes the Empire strong. I wish those my own age so much luck in all of this, because I know that this one of those defining expeirneces that will affect you for the rest of your lives. May you rise above it and change societies and governments for the better because of it. May you bring some sense of liberty and Joy, a sense of better understanding of who you are as individuals, and therefore what China and the Chinese people are, as you scale the wall. Good Luck!
*You get your own post.
Related articles by Zemanta