Importance of Declaration of Independence: Internet Freedom

Importance of Declaration of Independence: Internet Freedom Khoi Dao Relevance of Declaration of Independence In America’s revolution history, the Declaration of Independence wrote by Thomas Jefferson is one of the most iconic document. For most Americans, the Declaration of Independence describes the ideal government, one that works for its people and for their liberty, equality and happiness. Although our found father wrote the Declaration of Independence hundreds of years ago, this document is still relevant today because it gives us a blueprint to protect our â€Å"Internet’s right.† Internet is the most important invention in 20th century. There is not a better place for information and knowledge to be shared than on the World Wide Web. Internet is like supermarket of information and knowledge as it provided for everyone a fast access to practically limitless amount of data. Some people view it as a multimedia haven, some gush at the opportunities it will afford them to complete homework assignments, and for young adolescent boys it serves as a makeshift girlfriend. The Internet, and social networks by extension, is helping to spur an idea that seemed impossible a mere twenty years ago. Language barriers once prevented the average person from talking with someone in Asia or Europe, but now we have tools to communicate with someone in an entirely different language. A good example of this is Busuu.com, a site much like Facebook, where you can practice learning a language with people from different countries. The more humanity integrates over the web, the more soc ial borders dissolve. You might remember a time when the Internet did not exist, but the younger and upcoming generations will never know what it was like to live without web service. The internet service is a must have in nowadays society. Living in this age of technology without access to Internet is like living in a house with no electric. The most fundamental idea of the Internet is the freedom to share information. However, in recent years, the government proposes the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Internet Protocol Act) bills to further regulate the internet. The goal of these acts is to stop illegal downloading and protecting intellectual property rights, but they will do more than that. The entertainment industry wants to have the power to shut down an unauthorized site or person to protect its property. The SOPA and PIPA will introduce a vast potential for censorship and abuse on making the web less safe and frigid. Websites like Youtube and Facebook will be in the scope of these bills because these websites have huge base of users that express themselves, make arts and produce videos that have lots of copyrighted video clip and music mix in. The video of your baby that you post online will be taken down just because you have music playing in the background. Our politicians tamper with the basic idea of internet, the freedom to share information, just to make the entertainment industry happy. Government involvement in the net is comparable to talking on the phone to your girlfriend while your parents listen in. You can say a few of the things you want, but a lot of the content will be restrained. The notion of censorship is the elimination of the individual liberties of free speech as guaranteed by the American Constitution, prohibiting the right to individual interests and denying personal accountability. The Internet has become the next main target of government regulation and statism. If humanity allows the best symbol of freedom to be interposed upon the results could be catastrophic to the future of our race. The rules and regulations of Internet censorship are oddly close on the side of oppression. Government regulation of the net is comparable to placing D.U.I. checkpoints at every corner to make sure you remember to follow the laws and never consider deviation. While any regulation law introduced to society is always proclaimed to be done for the greater good, the greater good in this scenario may actually lead to the demise of the Internet as we know it. The government mandating Internet censorship will be the fall of democracy. We, as Americans, value freedom, especially speech, above most everything else. Our founding fathers set up our country to ensure that our right to freedom would forever be protected. Soldiers fight constantly to protect our ability to maintain freedom and not allow us to fall under the control of invading governments. Freedom of speech allows us to create our social identities. Communicating our ideas and beliefs, no matter how strong they may be, makes us unique. The Internet is one of the biggest platforms for freedom of speech and banning it as a place of free speech would cause great uproar. If the government had passed this bill it would serve as the tipping point for allowing censorship of speech in our society. While there are those who abuse the privileges of free speech on the Internet this can only lead to a dreary finish. Who is to say that the Internet is the only place where speech should be reg ulated? The government would then examine different places where they can implement restrictions and soon we may lose basic rights. Internet censorship is also contributing to creativity suppression. This creativity could potentially help the human race in the form of innovative new ideas. The Internet forms parallels to the enlightenment era of the 18th century. A big advancement back then was the new coffee shops where a person could pay a penny for a cup of coffee and sit down with other fine gentlemen. This was an interesting time because now a person could be around those of higher intelligence and imbibe the discussions concerning things like the natural sciences and philosophy. This era managed to reform society using reason rather than tradition, faith, and revelation, which lead to an explosion of learning and inquiry. It is almost like these were the prototype for todays Internet, but instead of coffeehouses of we now have sites like Khan Academy, Facebook, and YouTube to share ideas and these sites reach an audience of millions all from the comfort of their own homes. With every social and technologica l innovation the ease and speed of human interaction increases paving the way to greater strides in innovation and thought. If we censored the things said in these cafes who knows what kind of marvelous inventions we would be without today. I could be carving this paper into a rock right now like Fred Flintstone. Nevertheless, pro censorship lobbyist are more concerned with stopping pirating and not worried about the collateral damage all this meddling will have with the people who are actually contributing useful material. The Internet, like a blossoming flower, can truly something beautiful if we allow it to be. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, â€Å"governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.† This statement is still true in today society. Since the government proposes the SOPA and PIPA bills, people were angry and frustrated. The online community bands together, and organizes the largest protest in Internet history to stopped the SOPA and PIPA bills. Numerous websites began discussion, educated its users about these bills and encouraged them to contact their representatives to stop these acts. Some websites even proposed a â€Å"internet blackout† to protest against these bills. On January 18, 2012, there are more than 100,000 websites participated in the protest. Websites participated in the black out included Reddit, Craiglist, Twitte r, Tumblr, and many more. These websites blackout its websites for 24 hours, and provided links for the users about the SOPA and PIPA bills. Google also participates in the protest as well. Google placed a censor bar over their Goodle doodle, and connected its users to page with information about SOPA and PIPA, and at the end of the day they got 4.5 millions of signatures on their petition. The protest was the huge success, the blackout lead to at least 18 senators withdrawing support of the bills. On January 24, which is the initial date the Congress would vote on these bills, the vote was postponed and the SOPA and PIPA bills are being stopped when people spoken loud and clear. This protest proved that Jefferson’s statement is still relevant to this day. Internet is the wonderful tool that we used it in everyday life, sometimes we even take it for granted. The government proposes SOPA and PIPA bills to censor the Internet, these bills are the biggest threat to the Internet freedom as we know it that’s ever existed. The online community came together and successfully stopped the bills. The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Analysis The Reluctant Fundamentalist | Analysis The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a novel by Mohsin Hamid, young celebrated writer who had very intricately woven the story around a young Pakistani, Changez, who faces a post 9/11 situation in the United States. The novel is his monologue: a quietly told, cleverly constructed fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America, set on the deceitful fault lines of east/west relations, and finely tuned to the ironies of prejudice and misrepresentation. This gives an insight into the post 9/11 scenario and what the Muslims had to face in the United States. It is a deeply provocative, excellent addition to the post September 11 novels. But it would be an understatement to merely term it that. The novel is rich in irony and intelligence. It is beautifully written and superbly constructed. It is more exciting than any thriller Ive read since long, as well as being a subtle and elegant analysis of the state of our world today. It seems that Mohsin Hamid would have us understand the novels title ironically. It has a double meaning likewise the title has one person with two different personas. We are provoked to question whether every critic of America in a Muslim country should be labeled a fundamentalist, or whether the term more accurately describes the capitalists of the American upper class. Yet these queries seem blunter and less interesting than the novel itself, in which the fundamentalist, and potential assassin, may be sitting on either side of the table. Even at the end of the novel the writer closes with the narration, He writes: I hope you will not resist my attempt to shake you by the hand. But why are you reaching into your jacket, Sir? Therefore, it can be gauged that the American even after all the hospitality does not shrug off the suspicion he had in the beginning. The writer starts the sentence in the second line which is self explanatory of the perception of Muslims in the United States post 9/11. It says: Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. Throughout the novel we will come across instances where the writer tries to establish how the Americans perceive the Muslim world no matter how and what their contributions and emotions have been towards The United States. Authors Background: This book is written by Mohsin Hamid, born in 1971 in Lahore. After studying at Princeton and Harvard Law, he worked in New York and London, first as a management consultant with McKinsey and then as managing director of Wolff Olins. He now lives and writes in Lahore. His first novel, Moth Smoke- 2000, dealt with sex, drugs, and class conflict in 1990s urban Pakistan. It inquires the reader to judge the trial of an ex-banker and heroin addict who has fallen for his best friends wife. Moth Smoke became a cult hit in Pakistan. It was also the winner of a Betty Trask Award and a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. This second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist -2007, explored the fear and suspicion that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In it an American, encounters a bearded Pakistani who has left behind a high-flying career and love affair in New York. The novel became an international bestseller, won numerous awards, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Mohsin also writes essays and journalism for the Guardian, Time Magazine, The New York Times, Dawn, La Repubica, and other publications. Mohsin Hamid started writing the novel in 2000 before even 9/11 struck and then after it stuck he weaved the story around the same man Changez who went to study in America and built it in the aftermath of the fall of the twin towers. Because the writer has been living in the United States and also studied at the same institutes that he has mentioned therefore there is a likelihood that his personal observations would have come into play too. Target Audience: The audience that the writer caters is general public. The fall of the twin towers in the United States shook the world and a war was inflicted in the name of War on Terror bringing Muslims under its crunch. Therefore this book especially focuses on the youth, as the post 9/11 situation affected mostly the young working and studying in the US. Summary: The novel begins a few years after 9/11. Mohsin Hamid has very intricately woven the story around a young bearded man, Changez who happens upon the American in Lahore, invites him to tea and tells him the story of his life in the months just before and after the attacks. In 2001, as he explains, Changez was hardly a radical, as he now appears, not from within, but from without. That monologue is the substance of Hamids graceful and unnerving novel. Fresh out of Princeton, Changez was living in New York City and working as a Financial Analyst. At Princeton he was one of only two Pakistanis in his class who did exceptionally well there: I reached my senior year without having received a single B. The man who hires him is also something like a mentor: Jim is an American who rose from poor circumstances to become a very successful man, and he sees a similar hunger in Changez, though Changez doesnt think they are that similar. The fundamental motivation is slightly different: I did not grow up in poverty. But I did. His indoctrination, however, was never total. Starting with his job interview at Underwood Samson to a post-graduation trip to Greece with friends from Princeton, Changez maintains an outsiders double perspective. On the trip he is infatuated with Erica, one of the other travelers, but is also bothered by his rich friends extravagance and the arrogance with which they give orders to anyone theyve paid for a service: I found myself wondering by what peculiarity of human history my companions many of whom I would have regarded as upstarts in my own country, so devoid of refinement were they were in a position to conduct themselves in the world as though they were its ruling class. Yet even as he recognizes the shortcoming of that ruling class, Changez, who comes from a high-status family, moving downwardly, also aspires to join it. Given his oft-mentioned phenomenal aptitude for his new job and a talent for winning over other people, that goal seems all but guaranteed. Has he sacrificed his identity in pursuit of his status? Is he an ignorant master or a shrewd subaltern? Changez has already begun to ask himself these questions when he sees the towers fall. And in the wake of the attacks, as tensions escalate between India and Pakistan, and the United States is caught up in patriotic displays that strike Changez as a dangerous form of nostalgia, he loses interest in his work. Assigned to help appraise a publishing company in Valparaiso, Chile, he spends his time visiting Nerudas house and lunching with the publisher, who compares Changez to a janissary one of the Christian youths captured and then conscripted by the Ottomans, compelled to do battle against their own civilization. He appears to hide himself and his emotions completely, until his reaction to the attacks through the sudden smile, pierces the shell. It seems to have come as a surprise even to him and while hardly endearing, it sets his tale in motion. Changez has a particular way with words, especially regarding the American. Rather than stating the obvious, he offers a more agreeable alternative one that permits both him and the American to continue their pretense. And that it is a charade right from the beginning. Come, tell me, what were you looking for? Surely, at this time of day, only one thing could have brought you to the district of Old Anarkali and that is the quest for the perfect cup of tea. Have I guessed correctly? In the last lines of the 1st page the writer pens the American mindset, he writes: You prefer that seat with your back so close to the wall? He then adds satirically explaining to the American that the Pakistanis are not all terrorists and to be feared: You would have been surprised by the sweetness of his (Waiters) speech, if only you understood Urdu. Mohsin Hamid also talks about the dilemmas of the Pakistani society and narrates: Status in any traditional, class conscious society declines more slowly than wealth. He also talks about the suspicion with which the Americans view the Pakistanis, he tells him that the food is not poisoned and therefore offers an exchange of tea cups also to shrug all suspicions. The writer continues reflecting on the American mind and how they view the Muslims and adds to the tale: The American says: Although I like Pakistanis but the elite has raped that place well and good, right? And fundamentalism, you guys have some serious problem with fundamentalism. The writer through the mind of Changez feels bridled but accepts that there was nothing overtly objectionable in what he said. But the offence that he took made him restrict his response to Yes there are challenges but my family is there and I can assure you it is not as bad as that. Readers may be led to believe that the conversation over tea and dinner is merely a framing device, and that the true heart of the novel is the life-story Changez recounts, but that narrative is interrupted too often. Changezs life-story holds clues to what brings these two men together here for what is surely meant to be a fateful encounter which the writer pulls that off to some extent. Two things follow the turning point in the novel: Changez begins his introspection about Americas hegemony and power and the city he had embraced with such joy only a few months before begins to view him with mistrust and suspicion as the public mood and climate change. Changezs life begins to unravel quickly. Erica slips away from him, is confined to a mental asylum and eventually disappears. He is fired from his job. He returns to Lahore, bitter and disillusioned about the United States, and begins to teach at a university. His exposition of US behavior in its grief-crazed, wounded state offers a sort of postscript to this novel. As a society, you retreated into myths of your own difference, assumptions of your own superiority. And you acted out these beliefs on the stage of the world Such an America had to be stopped in the interests not only of the rest of humanity but also in your own. Changez does not let on exactly what he does to stop America once he is back in Pakistan though he admits that is his mission. Hamid keeps the ending of the novel open and faintly ominous. It is hard to tell how reliable a narrator Changez is. Analysis: Mohsin Hamid is a young celebrated writer. A less sophisticated author might have told a short narrative of an immigrants experiences of discrimination and ignorance. But Hamids novel is distinguished by its portrayal of Changezs class aspirations and inner struggle. For, to be an American is to view the world in a certain way. Ericas obsession with the past engineered to dovetail with Americas nostalgia and with Changezs yearning for a lost Lahore while her disappearance neatly parallels his departure from America. Hamid, who himself attended Princeton and worked in corporate America, aptly captures the ethos and hypocrisies truly and intricately. We never learn the American mans identity, yet Changez regularly interrupts the story to address him. Perhaps he had been pursuing Changez, who has become a leader of anti-American protests. Apparently, the man is on a mission and he may be carrying a weapon, as indicated in the last lines. The use of monologue in The Reluctant Fundamentalist allows the writer intimate access to his central characters mind. Not without its limitations, monologue is used here with great effectiveness, particularly in helping to build suspense. Changezs tone, which is sometimes exaggeratedly polite, sometimes darkly menacing, is laced with the bitter irony. The precise, rather classical orchestration of symmetries and reciprocities is both a strength and a weakness in the book. It fosters the kind of concentratedly astute cultural observation at which Hamid excels. At frequent intervals the narrative executes a nice flourish in the form of some densely symbolic image or succinct remark. Changez meaningfully summarizes, for instance, the experience of every happy Manhattan transplant when he declares: I was, in four and a half years, never an American; I was immediately a New Yorker. Conclusion: The nature of fiction here is closer to reality. The east/west scenario, the discovery of ones patriotism and a morally superior set of values leaves Changez with a sense of decision to leave the United States in the wake of September 11 attacks. He, therefore becomes a potentially fascinating character, what his creator would have intended. This is undoubtedly a great novel written out of the anguished material of these kinds of east/west encounters. This book and its author (who won a Betty Trask award for his first novel, Moth Smoke) certainly has the potential to produce more world class novels. It gives an insight into the American mind and how the world in a post 9/11 circumstances view the Muslims. It also enhances feelings of patriotism when the other partys intentions become evident. My critical analysis of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a testament to its genuinely provocative nature, and it remains, at the very least, an intelligent, highly engaging piece of work.