Speak Up Project

If you had half a brain while you were in middle school, you noticed every schoolyard fight that broke out. My school was particularly interesting because it seems that it was mostly girls that got into the physical brawls. Maybe my class brought up some bona fide wussy guys, who knows.

Occasionally there would be a Casey or a Paul that would get in someone’s face just to do it. We all know the type. Maybe in your school it was a Rhett or an Alouicious that just went by “Big Al”. All up in one another’s grill, these fights were mostly a lot of talk. By the end of the day, everyone would gather at a pre-determined submarine sandwich shop for a parking lot brouhaha. Everyone stands around, the fighters take stage, and then…

Yeah, we’ve all seen it. A lot of talk, but no walk. Crowd enthusiasm evolves to off-topic chatter and total disinterest assumes focus among the once-loyal observers. In a flurry of egomania, one of the contenders will finally throw a punch to get people interested again. Wait, what were they fighting about in the first place?

Why are so many people who feel like they’re in fights with pornography not willing to take the first punch? Why do we wait for negative effects to settle in before we make ourselves known?

p.s. I do not condone playground fighting.

Thinking about writing for this blog has taxed my mind unlike any other. Trying to strike a balance between prudence and honesty tends to sytematically cancel out most of the thought provoking ideas I come up with. It just tells me that maybe I shouldn’t be prudent, or perhaps honest.

Well, surely I will never let honesty suffer at the expense of prudence.

This blog will be about Internet governance, freedom of speech, freedom of information, the question about pornography on the Internet, the effects of communication without boundaries both good and bad, the exposure of those who “run” the Internet, and whatever else I deem as appropriately interesting and specifically pertaining to the matter.

This is your Internet, but as of right now you have no control and all the control in the world at the very same time.

You have no control because the haphazard way of regulating the internet gives way to a “hands-off” approach at protection. There are too many things that can be said without consequence. I think of a time one of my old room mates who served in Iraq decided to show me videos of people getting their heads blown off… as a joke. Where maybe his desensitized view of death made it humourous, I was bothered. I had to wonder, “how does this stuff make it online?

However, you have complete control because the Internet depends on you to thrive. The fact that I can start a blog like this, get people to read it, and generate opinions about what I do is purely indicative of the raw power that resides online. I can say something real personal, and if enough people take to it, it can become a standard. You have complete control because people will listen to you, sometimes to your expense.

The modern day thrust towards bigger, better, faster, and more is fed by the Internet. I will explore the ideas behind how this works. I will explore the different measures that are or are not being taken to protect us from letting the Internet get completely out of hand. I will reveal the strengths of the tools we have and expose their abilities to make us better. I will also try to point out its failures and weaknesses, and provide an option for solutions to allowing the information to take over the user.

I’m no expert, but I have a voice and I have the Internet. According to our standard today, that more than qualifies me to be an authority on these matters.