I think this paradigm has been encouraged by the corporate media, which ever way the pundit sways, specifically to keep Americans divided on political lines. Derogatory terms by both major political camps to describe their opposition in a dehumanizing light, keeps their own support base on the reservation, and discourages them from embracing values and ideas from the other.

As far as the internet, and social media goes, I liken it to a journalistic “Swiss Army”. Switzerland has a very small standing army that exists to maintain a certain level of military training amongst the population. The military might of the Swiss comes from the citizen militia, each and every able bodied citizen is issued arms by the state, by law. The whole of the people are the Army. A system we used to employ here in the US in the days before Empire. As in Switzerland, the US foreign policy was one of none intervention. Like Switzerland, the US had little need of a large expensive standing Army because of this. I digress, like the concept of a militia where the whole of the people provide for national defense by keeping and bearing arms, so this new technology lets the whole people inform each other. A modest computer system, complete with internet acess, inkjet printer and digital camera, is the equivalent of issuing every American with a printing press, television and radio station. We the people now have an ability in past generations to collect and distribute news that only large corporations enjoyed, without the teams of reporters, producers and editors that act as gatekeepers and opinion manipulators.

It is no accident that the rise of the Internet, has lead to the decline of newspaper, and TV reporting. It is also no accident that this phenomenon is causing the Federal Government and United Nations to have sleepless nights, or their new emphasis on licensing internet users, as well as their repeated claims in the mainstream propaganda outlets, that the internet is full of “bad information”.

The Federal Government violated the First amendment long ago by using the FCC to license broadcasters to use the “public airwaves”. A system devised to keep the public from using the airwaves freely for many decades. Let us be wary, and vigilant of the Government and their cohorts at the UN calling for internet licenses. They use the same tired old “for the children” and “public safety” arguments we are all too familiar with concerning gun control. Net nuetrality and free unfettered access is of utmost importance. Our right to speak freely is just as important as our right to keep and bare arms.

To put it bluntly, issuing licenses for using the internet, is like issuing licenses to speak in a public place, another fiat control of liberty that has been taking hold. It is also as dangerous as licensing pistols and rifles. The schemes go hand in hand nicely too.

I have been using sites such as facebook and myspace for a few years now to inform friends and family. Facebook more recently as it seems to be more popular. I think I may have hurt some feelings among many of my friends, and possibly made a few think I’m a little off balance. That’s just fine with me. I’d rather be mildly offensive, than willfully complicit in wasting a precious tool by playing silly games and ignoring the elephant in the corner. Personally I think my friends that are more concerned with farkle chips, farmville, and what type of food they’re eating right now rather than what their government is up to are the ones who are off balance.