Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Another [Fire]Wall is Falling
"A new piece of code founded on efforts from hacker collective the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), selected by Wired magazine as one of the top vapourware products of last year, is back from the dead, throwing up challenges to the firewall borders that some nation-states have set up to prevent access to (‘censor’) certain types, or sites, of information." --JJ King
Is this necessarily a bad thing? In the past, we (the U.S.) went to war with communism and facism because of our belief in power of democracy to ensure global security. In nations that attempt to prevent the spead of liberating ideas to the public--such as China--it seems to be in our interest as a nation which symbolizes liberty, to promote the breaking down of walls that prohibit the spead of democracy across the globe. But will democracy in countries like China even work? Will we really trust nations that do not share the exact same values as our own even after such walls are broken. Knowledge is power, and firewalls prevent that knowledge from getting to the people. Once the door is open and just a bit of light comes through, the desire for more is overwhelming. It's only a matter of time before this occurs, and it's apparent that there are people (hackers) who want to provide access to such liberating ideas, foreign to the people who are blocked from these freedoms.
http://www.metamute.org/en/Another-Fire-Wall-is-Falling
Is this necessarily a bad thing? In the past, we (the U.S.) went to war with communism and facism because of our belief in power of democracy to ensure global security. In nations that attempt to prevent the spead of liberating ideas to the public--such as China--it seems to be in our interest as a nation which symbolizes liberty, to promote the breaking down of walls that prohibit the spead of democracy across the globe. But will democracy in countries like China even work? Will we really trust nations that do not share the exact same values as our own even after such walls are broken. Knowledge is power, and firewalls prevent that knowledge from getting to the people. Once the door is open and just a bit of light comes through, the desire for more is overwhelming. It's only a matter of time before this occurs, and it's apparent that there are people (hackers) who want to provide access to such liberating ideas, foreign to the people who are blocked from these freedoms.
http://www.metamute.org/en/Another-Fire-Wall-is-Falling
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What a nice idea: an army of cyber vigilantes breaking down the national barriers of censorship. Freedom fighters tapping away at their keyboards to open up China, David and Goliath was a fair fight in comparison. China will open up from within as chinese dissidents and the market gradually erode the centralized power of the party to limit free speech.
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