Accidental Blogger

Power hungry,  unethical bureaucrats, big and small, have been on my mind for  quite some time, more so since the super secretive, scofflaw, vindictive Bush administration has had us on pins and needles for more than five years with its shenanigans. But it is not just those with overwhelming powers over others such as national and state governments who are to be feared and suspected. Given the opportunity, even bodies with limited and informal mandates, can turn draconian and fascistic. Exercising power over fellow citizens is a temptation that few can resist when the opportunity becomes available to them. Corporations, Little Leaguers, PTAs, neighborhood associations, all try to wield the stick over those who need their services. In fact, the organizations that most closely mirror Nazi like totalitarian regimes in modern day USA may be the Homeowners’ Associations of suburban America.

All power plays consist of gathering as much personal information about others as possible and keeping one’s own game plan as secret as possible. Dictating and limiting the operational field of others and expanding one’s own is what totalitarian bodies thrive on. Some parents do it with small children, some teachers do it with students, many corporations do it to workers and customers and most governments would try to do it with the citizens if they could get away with it. Transparency and sharing of information is the biggest foe of fascistic tendencies. Book burning, telephone tapping, having access to finacial and personal data of others contribute to the strength of those who want to control our lives.  The internet with its fast and furious mode of information sharing, is now the new frontier that the power-hungry types would like to control. They want to find new ways to tax, limit and control our access to this vast and amorphous source of news and information – literally an open book for all those who want to know. It is up to us to make sure that we do not unwittingly give up our right to know and disseminate information via this universal and highly accessible medium which has empowered the ordinary citizen like nothing else before.

Devanshu Mehta who runs the interesting blog Science Addiction, is a blogging friend and I have turned to him on more than one occasion for technical help.  Devanshu’s technical blog is devoted to "a little activism and a lot of geek." (Geek is a compliment in Devanshu’s high tech lexicon) Three days ago he posted a heartfelt article about the urgency for heightened activism on the part of internet geeks. Following in the historical activist footsteps of Martin Luther, he came up with 95 Theses of Geek Activism towards this effort.  His post struck a chord among geeks and bloggers. The article got linked by numerous blogs, brought in thousands of readers and generated a lively conversation at Science Addiction. In fact it is fair to say that Devanshu has the blogging equivalent of a bestseller with his modern day Theses.  All 95 theses may not be of interest to the non-technically minded among us. But there is much there about freedom of expression, privacy and the need for activism to protect our individual rights and freedoms. This is particularly important when we have a government led by dangerous leaders like Bush and Cheney and their willing, goose-stepping neo-con lieutanants in all branches of the government.

Listed below are some of Devanshu’s warnings and advice of general interest to bloggers and citizens: