Our
internet isn't working at the moment, which is both annoying and...
well, actually no. I was trying to force myself to see some sort of
positive in this grim situation as I type thoughts straight from my
head, but no, there are no positives here. It's annoying. I'll even
go so far as to say that not having internet on this Thursday
afternoon as the predictably unexpected Melbourne rain cuts through
the 'Spring' air is shit. Shit, guys. How about that?
I feel like my phone bill is going to be a it of a motherfucker this month – while I was in the Gold Coast I used my phone every day as a modem for my laptop so I could check my Facebook and emails properly rather than with Android which is so much clunkier. I've been streaming YouTube a bunch as well, and as we speak I'm listening to Anna Lunoe's June mix on SoundCloud through my phone plugged into my room's speakers. The internet is so great.
At the Rochester we've just started taking donations at the end of every night, this week we made thirty-five dorrahz, fifteen of which I gave to James Masters, the headliner (who TORE IT UP for the record), and twenty of which we have donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). I remember watching a great keynote address by the mighty Dan Harmon earlier this year in which he retraces humanities evolution throughout history and charts our use of communication technologies, from speech to writing to telephones, radio, TV, and now the internet. One of his closing points was about how each of these new technologies (or at least, the more recent ones definitely) have started off as free, uninhibited playgrounds for the general public of the time to do with whatever they could imagine, but were slowly usurped and regulated by fearful governments and power-hungry corporations. TV was the most recent, and as regulation and business came, so left the true creativity that used to exist on the medium.
He went on to talk about the internet and its huge potential to be the playground of the masses that gives rise to such creativity, and made the bold statement that it may very well be one of those sitting in his crowd that finally discovers a way to reign in the freedom that now dominates the internet, and monetize it, thus destroying it's true value in exchange for individual power. That's why we've started donating profits from the Rochy to the EFF, because it's such a good cause. Governments and private lobbyists (more the latter working through the former, really) with vested interests in the ongoing regulation of information are constantly trying to take control of the internet – an absurd notion akin to trying to trying to control people's ability to speak to eachother – and if people like ourselves continue to do nothing until it affects us personally, then by the time it does, it will be too late.
Look at me ranting and raving about causes and shit... it's important though, isn't it? I debated for a second over whether to put a question-mark at the end of that last sentence. Rhetorical question, yes, but also, firm statement. It is important. Freedom of the Internet, knowledge is power, and power should belong to the people. All People. Equally.
I think the idea that the government is – by definition – The People, or at least an extension of us, is lost on far too many. So many people – and correct me if I'm wrong – seem to understand the government as a separate entity that is a force to be pushed against and somehow defeated; that it is a force outside of us and that we should do away with it. The government is us, and we are the government. We govern ourselves, those who we install to do the work of governance do not govern us, but merely govern for us, so that we can get down to important things like having sex and eating ice cream. Come on guys, they are just time-savers, and can be done away with whenever we want, if we should so choose.
I feel all ideological today. It's nice, maybe it's the rain. I can hear it like static, falling on the roof as Anna Lunoe's house music beats underneath my thoughts, here on Thursday afternoon, in Richmond, 3121.
Peace, Taco.
I feel like my phone bill is going to be a it of a motherfucker this month – while I was in the Gold Coast I used my phone every day as a modem for my laptop so I could check my Facebook and emails properly rather than with Android which is so much clunkier. I've been streaming YouTube a bunch as well, and as we speak I'm listening to Anna Lunoe's June mix on SoundCloud through my phone plugged into my room's speakers. The internet is so great.
At the Rochester we've just started taking donations at the end of every night, this week we made thirty-five dorrahz, fifteen of which I gave to James Masters, the headliner (who TORE IT UP for the record), and twenty of which we have donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). I remember watching a great keynote address by the mighty Dan Harmon earlier this year in which he retraces humanities evolution throughout history and charts our use of communication technologies, from speech to writing to telephones, radio, TV, and now the internet. One of his closing points was about how each of these new technologies (or at least, the more recent ones definitely) have started off as free, uninhibited playgrounds for the general public of the time to do with whatever they could imagine, but were slowly usurped and regulated by fearful governments and power-hungry corporations. TV was the most recent, and as regulation and business came, so left the true creativity that used to exist on the medium.
He went on to talk about the internet and its huge potential to be the playground of the masses that gives rise to such creativity, and made the bold statement that it may very well be one of those sitting in his crowd that finally discovers a way to reign in the freedom that now dominates the internet, and monetize it, thus destroying it's true value in exchange for individual power. That's why we've started donating profits from the Rochy to the EFF, because it's such a good cause. Governments and private lobbyists (more the latter working through the former, really) with vested interests in the ongoing regulation of information are constantly trying to take control of the internet – an absurd notion akin to trying to trying to control people's ability to speak to eachother – and if people like ourselves continue to do nothing until it affects us personally, then by the time it does, it will be too late.
Look at me ranting and raving about causes and shit... it's important though, isn't it? I debated for a second over whether to put a question-mark at the end of that last sentence. Rhetorical question, yes, but also, firm statement. It is important. Freedom of the Internet, knowledge is power, and power should belong to the people. All People. Equally.
I think the idea that the government is – by definition – The People, or at least an extension of us, is lost on far too many. So many people – and correct me if I'm wrong – seem to understand the government as a separate entity that is a force to be pushed against and somehow defeated; that it is a force outside of us and that we should do away with it. The government is us, and we are the government. We govern ourselves, those who we install to do the work of governance do not govern us, but merely govern for us, so that we can get down to important things like having sex and eating ice cream. Come on guys, they are just time-savers, and can be done away with whenever we want, if we should so choose.
I feel all ideological today. It's nice, maybe it's the rain. I can hear it like static, falling on the roof as Anna Lunoe's house music beats underneath my thoughts, here on Thursday afternoon, in Richmond, 3121.
Peace, Taco.
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