A thought on net neutrality...

The internet is where I invest my hope for the brighter future of Humanity.

Let me explain. Our United States government is a largely centralized one, and for this reason the power falls far from the hands of we the people. I say largely, on the other hand, because in our crisis ridden recent years, the government has been using the internet to reach out for more direct involvement from the people. From my home of Los Angeles with Mayor Villaraigosa asking Angelenos to help solve our deficit issues, to the Obama Whitehouse encouraging people to offer ideas on ways to create jobs, it's a trend that's quickly picking up speed. What this means is the power of society is on an outward trend back to the people who live in it, rather than a bunch of folks who are sitting pretty with awesome salaries, topnotch healthcare, and even better retirement plans, i.e. basically 95% of the politicos in Washington.

Ah but there's more. If there's one thing that's great about the internet, is that it costs next to nothing to share great quantities of information with vast numbers of people in extraordinarily small measurements of time. This is huge! What it means, is that our politicians can one day run a campaign on next to no budget (relatively speaking of course). Imagine if our leaders didn't need to sell our wills out to the big drug/bank companies every time they did something because they depend on said company's financial backing in order to win the next election. We might not actually be a society wrongly manipulated by the rich/powerful. Will there still be the class warfare that there is now? Probably, but at least, the odds will be much more balanced.

Now for net neutrality. Much of my deepest hopes, which I keep having to learn the hard way, are dangerous things to hold too tightly to, hinge on the fact that the web remains an equal playing field for all involved entities. Just in the same way that special interests really taint the functioning/efficiency of our government's role to serve the people, if they (special interests) get their paws on the internet, I may as well kiss life as I hoped it would be goodbye.

If there's one thing I take comfort in, with all of this to consider, it's the ingenuity of the people that essentially make the internet run--being one of them my self, that is. =P

That's it for now.

Many nights DTC,

Addison.