Citizen Spocko

The future is arriving. Striding in through this tangled nexus of tangential tubes, the “Internets”.* I’ve watched in awe as this phenomenon of almost instantaneous interconnection has matured into a realm of self governance in action. It’s very close to my naïve teen conception of Anarchy. (I once considered myself an anarchist…the individualist, “rule of conscience” sort, who eschewed violence). This web seems to have revealed itself to be nothing less than “a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace” where the only law is the Golden Rule, as John Perry Barlow writes in his Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (here).

There has been a rash of editorials in these past few months about Big Media writhing uncomfortably in their seats, wringing their hands in response to what the Internet has spawned: the Citizen Journalist. It seems the influence of the Blogger can no longer be ignored. On Gandhi’s road to acceptance, bloggers seem to be at stage two: "then they laugh at you" (i.e.“kooks with keyboards”) but moving quickly into fighting territory.

The power of the individual connected to the internet community is playing out right now in the still unfolding story of Spocko vs. KSFO Hate Speech Radio. What happens when a one guy gets fed up with the venomous talk he hears spewing from the public airwaves targeting liberals, Democrats, Muslims and Arabs? He probably wants to give the foamers a Vulcan nerve pinch but instead he shares his frustration with his fellow bloggers and an idea forms. Do the advertisers on this program know what kind of talk they are supporting with their dollars? He samples some of the most offensive bits and sends them to those businesses in order to give them an informative earful. Consequence: VISA, MasterCard and Bank of America pull their ads. KSFO goes into panic mode. Threats to sue ensue. Blogs spread the word. Electronic Frontier Foundation backs up Spocko's right to use copyrighted material (the audio samples) under fair use laws. Newspapers pick up the story (NYT). Folks listen to the clips themselves on YouTube. ABC and Disney are the parent companies of KSFO so now a boycott is brewing. (Here’s a list of KFSO and Disney advertisers) End result: the issue of hate speech in America is right now sifting up to high visibility. Amazing.

Though a two-edged sword, the Internet can be a powerful agent of transparency. Misinformation and corroboration coexist but that just means we need to oil up a most basic faculty: critical thinking. And that's nothing but good.

The Internets have come of age. It's a sign of the times. The future is now.

"Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of the Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you posses any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear."

From the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

* Nod to Senator Ted Stevens, Republican from Alaska who explains the "Internets" as a "series of tubes".