We Protest for Change With Change

All of this talk about SOPA/PIPA has really gotten me thinking about our current form of government. I'm also in a Political Science class this semester and as I was reading about the inspiration for our current constitution, I had an overdue thought. John Locke made a great contribution to our political ideology when he said, "And that all men may be restrained from invading others' rights, and from doing hurt to one another, and the law of nature be observed, which willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind, the execution of the law of nature is in that state, put into every man's hands, whereby everyone has a right to punish the transgressors of that law to such a degree, as may hinder its violation".(Second Treatise, Chapter 2). He was saying that law lies in the hands of those it governs, that the people have the right and the responsibility to change what needs to be changed and to give voice to those who cannot speak. 

This past year, we have been privy to watching, and perhaps contributing, to the largest protest America has seen in years. The Occupy Wall Street movement was the reaction of American citizens to actions of government that they deemed corrupt or unlawful. These thousands of people used their rights as citizens to voice their concern and upset. This protest was physical for the most part. People used their sheer physical mass to draw attention to themselves and to get their point across. All other campaigns or protests that have occurred within the last two hundred years have been conducted in this way as well, by physical and very vocal means. The Civil Rights Movement is one very notable example. Thousands were physically present to hear Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and to show their support. 


The protest surrounding SOPA/PIPA, however, has taken a very different form. While protesters to these bills have been very vocal in their rejection of the legislation, they have done so in a completely new and very apt way; on-line. My realization was this, that technology has even changed the way in which we speak out against our government. The anti-SOPA/PIPA conversation has been going on for as long as the legislation has been on the table. It has been re-hashed, re-worked, dumbed-down for the newbies, and over-analyzed by the technological geniuses of our day, but still our government leaders talk about it as if it were this small, potentially annoying piece of legislation that might just be overlooked. We are fighting change with change. One of the main arguments of anti-SOPA/PIPA people is that the government is trying to control something that it doesn't understand, but as far as I can see, the problem is that the government doesn't understand the people it is trying to govern. 

Firefox add-on DeSopa circumvents internet blacklisting if SOPA becomes law

Our governmental bodies are functioning as they always have, with the same set of rules, the same set of ideals, but we as a nation have changed dramatically in relation to this cause. We are not getting up and shouting or marching down board-walks, we are talking about it on-line. We are discussing the issue with an audience that holds the same view as our own. That audience does not include our officials, apparently. Here we are, one more time, at the Tower of Babel, trying to reach out to on-another in seemingly foreign languages. The legislature considers the problem to be one of geeks and nerds, people with too much time on their hands and who aren't contributing to the tax pool fairly. The internet community sees a problem that could shake the very foundations of their livelihood being handled by money-greedy politicians who would sooner lie to them than shake their hand. I think that this issue, more than any other our nation has seen, is exposing the sheer vastness of opinion and polarity that we have to either deal with, or face grave consequences. 


My point? We as an on-line community need to be louder. They as our legislature need to figure out how to use a search engine. Compromise has to happen now while it still can. No, I don't think that SOPA or PIPA will pass, but they will not be the last legislature to come through regarding these issues, but are the first of many until we can come up with a reasonable solution to our current problems.