Why Democrats, Republicans, and Broadcast Media Are So Troubled by the Internet

The Internet represents the first public commons for many nations -- including America -- in a long time. Before the advent of radio and TV ("broadcast media") citizens gathered in town halls, pool halls, churches or public parks and enthusiastically discussed the issues of the day among themselves. This was "peer-to-peer" conversation.

The age of electronic broadcasting changed all that, enabling a tiny elite group of wealthy network owners licensed by powerful central governments to dominate what citizens thought about, loved, hated, feared, and sometimes argued about—albeit resorting to childish canned off-the-shelf arguments predigested and fed us by classy professional newscasters. And what a spell they cast on us!

But with the coming of the Web astute Americans now enjoy an exciting alternative to the "peer-to-peon" spectator sport of broadcast journalism. At long last cyberspace affords a dramatic return to the lively peer-to-peer conversation that once facilitated and drove the democratic process. With the sudden rise of social networking isolated couch potatoes began connecting their private islands together across space and time, forming democratic communities in virtual town halls in nations without borders. Cybercitizens, fed up with the same old tiresome fairy tales of how the world works, are quickly finding out for themselves how the world really works. And the world will never be the same again. It's like Gutenberg and his printing press déjà vu. More and more people are beginning to think "outside the (TV) box" and the social engineers don't like it. They want to keep us looking for Santa coming down the chimney like the good old days.

So, what can they do about it? In the famous words of a Nixon adviser, "Once the toothpaste is out of the tube it's going to be very hard to get it back in."

Ironically, the Internet was first developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) under the U.S. Department of Defense using our tax dollars. So we own it. But now we hear of those in the halls of power looking for ways to bring the Internet and its cybercitizens under control. They want to stop us leaning over the fence and informing each other. They want to keep us passively receptive to their parental guidance while experts and technocrats run the country—and the world. They want to re-establish mass mind—no independent thinking allowed. They want to privatize the Internet.

Privatizing the Internet would be like selling off the U.S. Interstate highway system to the highest bidders, possibly foreign creditors the federal government owes money to. Privatizing the Internet would mean that the same media giants who now have your eyeballs glued to the screen in your living room would also buy up all the Internet bandwidth. "Mom and Pop" sites would be shoved onto the dirt back roads of the information highway. Alternative journalism—blogging—would come to an end. And we'd once again be back inside the box.

Want to do something about it? Well you can. Look for a Save the Internet group on FreedomFriends.com in the near future. And join.