Fake “Freedom”

The Internet services of British Telecom will shortly begin blocking illegal child pornography sites.

Good show, old chaps!

BT should be congratulated for stepping up and confronting thw warped, twisted, yes, even perverted anarchism so common in cyberspace these days.

Freedom Vs. License

The anarchists will of course claim to be freedom-fighters.

What a lie. They don’t want freedom; they want license.

License is the right to do anything you want.

Freedom is the right to do anything you want so long as it doesn’t interfere with the rights of other people.

Big difference.

The way you determine the rights of people in a society is by law; plain old regular laws, constitutions, things like that.

Anarchists don’t believe in that (at least not as it works in the typical nation-state).

For such people, the Internet is a brave new world unencumbered by all those pesky laws.

So what has this lawless environment gotten us?

It has gotten us spam. It has gotten us adware and spyware. It has gotten us a cyberculture of theft.

And when the governmental tortoise moves against such activities that either are or ought to be illegal according to the general principles of a society, this culture of license screams about losing “freedoms” that never existed.

If you don’t think the anarchistic mindset plays a large part in this, consider the following:

Normally in a democratic republic, if laws are perceived to be bad or inadequate, people and groups try to get them changed. This is how a democracy works. Even if you think that democracy is corrupt, certainly tens of millions of file sharers with relatively little effort could overwhelm any monetary efforts by the RIAA in lobbying, and most certainly in voting.

Here, though, there is virtually no interest in passing or changing laws to make adjustments to the framework of laws as they apply to the digital world. It’s not even in these people’s vocabulary.

Child pornography is a good example of this whole phenomenon. There is no doubt that child pornography leads to grave harm to many children. There is no doubt that child pornography is illegal in real-world Britain (and no doubt in most countries). There is no doubt that societies have for centuries passed and enforced laws meant to protect children.

But none of this matters to the anarchists. All that matters is that a “freedom” is being taken away. It’s not being taken away; it was never there.

Such “freedom” is not the friend of true freedom; it is its enemy.

Fortunately to true freedom, though, child pornography will become the litmus test of wackodom, and the poster child for any and all causes out to restrict “freedom” (and perhaps encroach on even the real thing.)

To the average person, someone who says kiddie porn cannot be restricted in any way, shape or form is an extremist, a nut (and more likely than not, a pervert to boot). That’s what they’re going to think, end of story, and if you think otherwise, you are simply clueless about the real world.

Kiddie porn puts the inherent extremism of the anarchists into sharp focus (as does any porn easily accessible to children). Issues like these will eventually wake up even the most computer-illiterate legislator.

This is why the anarchists will eventually lose. They have to lose. It will probably take a long time, and I don’t doubt in the least a criminal underground will continue to exist, just like criminal undergrounds exist for many illegal activities in the real world.

The lawful real world cannot in the long run tolerate a lawless cyberspace that flouts its laws. The wheels turn slowly, and it may take a long time, could be decades, but the anarchism will be squeezed out, if not crushed.

Email Ed