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Pirates may Save YOUR Freedom (Happy 4th of July)

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

Martin Niemöller, 1892-1984

Just a little time ago, we learned about the pirate bay court case, the best outcome of it might be the birth of the Pirate Party, world wide.
Why this name, why pirates? Well, in the court case they were accused to act like pirates for offering URL’s (links/references) to any form of media transported via the torrent peer-to-peer protocol. For the computer literate this is as if you were responsible for actions of others, just because you have referenced them in your book – choose the media of your choice.

This court case might have led reaching critical mass to wake up the people. Utilizing the very responsibility every citizen has within a democracy, act – don’t expect others to help your case. Especially not the other, not literate enough to understand the high potential risk our still free society is currently undergoing.

.. just to name a few collisions, threatening our very room for development, which somehow is granted  in all our constitutions – if you enjoy such privileges.

Following the USA Patriot Act, the German government for example logs all communications headers (from-, to-address, date and time, etc) of text messages, emails, phone calls etc. Lately they even ruled in favor of a Internet filter/censorship infrastructure using the excuse that the Internet shall not be a realm without law. Indeed the ridiculous and very publicity case of child pornography was being (ab)used. Abused because even experts in this fields know that those criminals won’t just surf on such a website, use other medias or at least high encryption systems – which goes for all criminal, and the latter for all information sensitive citizens. Welcome 1984. Sanctity of the mail, privacy. Without such and with available information of who consumes what and which side you are on – especially even being aware of it – renders many people silent. Shock and Awe established (9/11, terror, crime, war, ..) and anticipatory obedience expected, otherwise ridiculed or just declared as an enemy. Welcome to 2009.

The bad economy actually helping the situation. Who is still willing to stand up and speak for themselves?
Risking loosing the job, probably no health insurance .. etc.
Of course, I have though about the risks of blabbering my thoughts in public, but in the end, it is our very duty to defend our democracy, our constitution,
for ourselves, for the future of our children and our deer fellow citizens of this planet.
(I don’t call it nation, since this meaning is buried for a long time already. Our societies are intermingled and all depend on each other, the powerful so called western world vs the still unprivileged countries, which we will free, since they shall become valuable trade partners in the future.)
Being afraid to speak out contrarian ideas might be an indication of the lack of independence, the absence of freedom.

Our still free countries become more alike Iran, China or other totalitarian regimes, don’t say it can’t happen here.
Speak up – speak loud & clear, defend our free system – whatever you think it is, capitalism or socialism.
To be honest, the declaration, the law doesn’t matter, if it is not executed by it’s book.

True competition without subsidies and artificial patent claims might be as healthy as a Star Trek society which tries to reach out for a common goal,
as long we hold on to our ethics and love our competitors. Just to provoke a little debate :)

After all this blabbering .. you may ask what has all of this to do with the Pirate Parties ?
Read their website – they all deal with these issues – the very building blocks of our freedom, privacy & innovative potential.

Since I currently live in the beautiful State of California,
I hopefully honor this day with a  call to reclaim our freedom and wish all of you a happy 4th of July!

July 5th, 2009 | Tags: , , , | Category: Life, Politics

1 comment to Pirates may Save YOUR Freedom (Happy 4th of July)

  • Peter
    July 6th, 2009 at 12:32

    I think the Pirate Party shows not just the failings of current political parties and their disconnect from society, but more importantly the power that the global corporations now hold over all governments. We might try to take back our goverments via new parties, but it wont solve this wider issue. But at least we may escape from being ruled through fear.