China -- the fragile glimmer of freedom
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have seen two articles-- one each from two prominent cypherpunks who shall remain unnamed-- which said something to the effect that China's censorship of the Chinese part of the Internet will only "hurt themselves". The apparent degree of unconcern, or at least the callous way that it was presented, saddened me. One of the messages even ended with a sardonic "Oh well.". For people who spewed forth hundreds of articles of rants when the toothless CDA outlawed lewdity and advice about abortion, and for people who bravely and promptly took action to protect the free speech of a <contempt>Holocaust denier</contempt>, the cpunks have been noticeably silent about this much more cruel and widespread repression. Perhaps you think that the compliant Chinese person is satisfied with his or her role as lackey of his government? Or is it that we and the Asians inhabit such different worlds that we will have to make do without each other's help? I think the cpunks are better than that, and I think that as information technology permeates China, that the cpunks will also be there, creating tools, smuggling them to the Chinese people, and teaching them how to use these tools to assert sovereign control over their own words and thoughts. And pausing, on occasion, to engage in the cyberspace equivalent of displaying a certain Western obscene gesture towards the totalitarian government. ObCrypto: The RSA signature on this message can be used by the Chinese police if they would like to verify its authorship. I might come to regret this someday... ObE$: Probably the most powerful of said tools is currency. Bryce -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.01 iQCVAwUBMSPLb/WZSllhfG25AQGKBwP7BFjWue3axSz2NH0vKjMhYI3EK5IQQb96 ApuLvyOyQgTHGNW0BWgESvT1Xm8zkWf7QoVM7qdnF5Q5FPi2TmaxNKx4TJi4+2cp 7lnxbOO/eXMIMutrKcBxMMJW8MiBi6le5FoJ98t/OeHLZQ32c7hljeE3YKSMSt5G 9kqKqfaPiu8= =aZ3k -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (1)
-
Bryce