It's the Internet. What else could it be?

This fabulous medium allows people to communicate from all over the world. Ideas are exchanged. Data is downloaded which moves governments to act. Software is installed on other PCs which gives them the capabilities which were not dreamed to be in the hands of the Proletariat.

Communication
A world communicates. Unstoppable packets zip thru the Internet. Citizens of countries exchange ideas, concepts, idealistic motives which deserve attainment. These are all good things for citizens to engage--much to the chagrin of their govenments who often wrongly believe that they know what's best for its citizens.

Information
By being hooked to the Net, nearly anyone can gather nearly any chunk of data they desired. Said data could be crunched to show certain things--such as North Korea's per capita income being so dismal compared to South Korea's. With that type of information in hand, no telling what kind of unrest could be fomented.

Capability
That's what software does: it provides capability. Software for manipulating spreadsheets for cost analysis. Word processors for writing documents. Crypto software for encoding messages which are no one else's business along the path that the packets take to wend their way to the recipient.

When people have capabilities, they should exert them. They should grab power for themselves because they are the ones who make up their country, not the government. The ruling body is there in servitude of its citizens. That's what a democracy provides. But conversely, if the people have dictatorship and do not feel the compunction to overthrow it, then they have no one to blame but themselves.

While some might say that the Net gives rise to "informed mob rule". I will take that alternative anyday as opposed to its opposite: a centralized government so utterly unyielding that it believe it is within their right to keep the masses ignorant.

Which do you choose?

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