Re: Utopian Promises-Net Realities / Critical Art Ensemble

[John Perry Barlow <barlow@eff.org>]

At 5:01 PM 11/19/95, Pit Schultz wrote:

>The need for net criticism certainly is a matter of overwhelming urgency.


Pit,

Really? What do you propose we do with your criticisms and indictments?
Even if we find the Net to be brimming with toxins to the future
commonweal, by what means shall we prevent them?

"Direct action" to control the Net toward the improvement of Humankind is
no less perilous in the service of your good intentions than it would be in
the service of Senator Exon's. And stopping it is not an option. It is as
inevitable as evolution, running, as it does, on the same engine.

A decentralized medium offers but few choices - and they are very personal
ones: jack in, jack out, or jack off.

In the end, as Gandhi proposed, "You must be the change you wish to see in
the world." There's little else you can do.

Yrs,

John Perry







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John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident
Co-Founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Home(stead) Page: http://www.eff.org/~barlow

Barlow in Meatspace: Salt Lake City 11/19 801/582-5035

Coming soon to: Wyoming 11/20...

In Memoriam, Dr. Cynthia Horner and Jerry Garcia

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Time present and time past
are both perhaps present in time future
and time future contained in time past.

                                  --T.S. Elliot, Burnt Norton