I Spy, With My Little Eye

We’re surrounded by politicians and corporations who feel more and more threatened by us and by the Internet.

The corporations (most obviously represented by the media-maffia) feel threatened since people now have the power to distribute their own creative works with none or very little cost. This threatens a business-model that’s built on not creating anything, but by controlling the flow of creativity from others. The Internet has rendered record companies virtually obsolete, since musicians now can distribute their own music.

Politicians feel threatened by the Internet since it allows limitless communication. No longer do we have to rely on the filtered and controlled information that they allow us through controlled outlets such as radio and television. Instead we can communicate endlessly, and with immediate reaction. Blogs and chats and direct interaction between citizens threaten to overthrow their empire of bureaucracy. This is unacceptable for them, since they want to maintain the status quo where they can use a system they control against the majority of the citizens.

Add to this mix a lot of greed and stupidity and you have a recipe for a dystopian future where the most amazing invention humankind has ever created (the Internet) is being used to control the vast majority for the benefit of a small clique of self-appointed elite.

One of the most common thing proponents of a draconian society uses is the phrase “if you’re clean you have nothing to worry about… ” which implies that if you’re a law-abiding citizen you should simply accept this invasion of privacy and loss of rights they’re trying to push on you.

Imagine a future society where everything you do is monitored. Not even George Orwell in his wildest imagination could’ve dreamt up such a horrible dystopia, and it’s all thanks to corporations and politicians corrupting the beautiful internet for their own hidden agendas.

It could start innocently enough. Think about it, virtually every computer today has a webcam – either built-in or attached through a cable. What if some politicians decided that every webcam had to be monitored via a government-installed piece of software? Just to make sure that you’re a law-abiding citizen. I mean, if you’re law-abiding you have nothing to hide, right? Just install the software and we won’t suspect you of anything. If you don’t install it, then that automatically means you have something to hide, and they will decide without informing you what kind of freak you are – even though you just wanted to maintain the right to privacy.

This is why you need to vote for your local Pirate party. If there is none, you need to start one. Before it’s too late, before commercial and political interests have corrupted our society into the one I describe above.

The Fading Sun

The summer is over. One of the minor annoyances with living this far up north on the globe we call home is that the summers are short and intense. Sure, we get high temperatures and can enjoy shorts-weather, but the window is limited. End of May until end of August.

Before the end of May there’s the neurotic and twitchy north-swedish spring. After the end of August the slow and dull north-swedish fall takes over.

Well, it’s not all bad. September is a great month actually. Leaves turn into sparkling oranges, yellows and browns. But October is a wet and dull month, at least here in Umeå. November, the snow still hasn’t arrived in full and that means an intense and very harsh cold until the snow might finally wrap the surroundings in white.

But now it’s September. It’s been an intense summer, and while I feel a slight pang of sorrow for not doing some of the things I set out to do, I’m trying to enjoy September for what it is. It’s a cool month, literally. I try to take a walk each day, and even if they’re not always of the long variety there’s always at least an hour or two when I’m not at home.

Today is the exception.

However, that doesn’t stop my beloved cat from enjoying the balcony. Even though she’s limited to the apartment she sure does enjoy the balcony. At least once a day –if the weather is bright– she scratches the door and insists on sauntering outside to sit in one of my awful plastic chairs for a bit. Every time I imagine that if she smoked, she’d have one of those yellow french Galois-cigarettes attached to a slender mouthpiece, like some diva from the 1920s might. She’d sit out there, enjoying the fall-sun, taking in the fresh air while ignoring the irony of how she pollutes the same with her cigarette. Because that’s how cats function. They accept the paradox. Just like I imagine a 1920s style diva might accept the very same paradox.

balconycat