"I think that if people want certain information, then they should
be able to get it, and if they don't want certain information, then it
shouldn't be imposed on them."
------
It's been thirty years, but I remember it like it was yesterday.
It was actually quite ironic... the very developers of the tool
that would finally put an end to all censorship having a debate
over how to best censor themselves. Of course it began with
good intentions, and at the time no one really saw it as true
censorship. It was more a effort put certain, shall we say,
restrictions on what we presented to people. The project would
stand a greater chance of popular acceptance that way, and
of course we all wanted the project to be a success
What we failed to realize at the time was that we _were_ the
masses. And what we were hiding was ourselves. In the interest
of being accepted by others, we agreed to conceal ourselves
behind masked keys and nested hierarchies. But we missed the
danger. We didn't see the slippery slope. We started by
concealing sexually explicit images. Then we catered to those
who wanted to conceal sexually explicit text. And then racist
text, and then vulgar text. Eventually there was nothing that
one or another of us wasn't trying to hide, and only then
did we realize that we had become the proponents of everything
that we had once stood against...
"Daddy."
It made me think of my parents. I wondered if they faced the
same feelings as they watched me grow up; the feelings I now
face as I watch my own children? That saddening disappointment
that the future we had tried to create for our children would
never be realized.
"Daddy!"
Thirty years, and the dream is but a faded memory. Faded
and all but forgotten...
"Daddy!!!"
The young, shrill voice snapped me out of my nostalgic hypnosis.
How long had she been standing there without me noticing? I seem
to have become so distant lately.
"What is it, precious?" Some warmth returned to me. Whatever
we lost back then suddenly didn't seem so important.
"Where were you when they took freedom of press away from the
Internet?"
A chill swept over me, and then it passed. A powerful thing,
nostalgia. I pulled her close to me and chucked. A distant,
sighful chuckle.
"I was on the freenet-dev mailing list, sweetheart."
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