From: Alan Olsen <alano@teleport.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 17:46:10 +0800
To: Mike McNally <sjb@universe.digex.net>
Subject: Re: Enforcing the CDA improperly may pervert Internet architecture
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960409221018.0093c1a0@mail.teleport.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:44 PM 4/9/96 -0500, Mike McNally wrote:
>Scott Brickner wrote:
>> Given your position, io.com is only accessible to adults in the world
>> of the CDA advocates.  Just upgrade your IP software to refuse
>> connections from minors.
>
>It's not "my" IP software.  I pay io for an account.  What you're saying
>is that every ISP would have to decide whether to be completely G-rated
>or else open to anybody.

Then they go on about how every school in the country needs to be connected
to the net...

I am wondering where they got the idea that the net is someplece they want
their children to be.  They don't let them play in distant parks inhabited
by scary old men and drunks, yet they want them to play on the "information
Superhighway".  

The CDA types seem to view the net the same way that they view TV in the
classrooms.  They expect it to be as easy to control as well.  Get them all
staring at the box and they will quiet down and do as they are told.  What
these people do not seem to understand is what is going to happen when their
kids are exposed to the diverse opinions present on the net.  

Forget the porno...  What are the parents who believe in Creationism going
to do when little Johnny runs into a good skeptical site debunking all that
crap?  What are they going to do when the little liberal kids are exposed to
the works of conservitives?  Or Biblical Inerentists kidlets are exposed to
the debunkings of that faith?  Or Dorthy Denning's kids (if she has any) get
exposed to the writings of the subversive known as Tim May?

The CDA proponents want the ideas presented to their kids be controled ones.
The existance of freedom on the net is a threat to that control.  Porno is
used as the (net)scapegoat, but there are far more threatening ideas out
there to that kind of mindset.  They just know that if they tell you their
true goals, then people will not go along with them.

If you want to know their real fears, read the stuff they write for the
"faithful".  It is far more revealing.  ("Remember: It is not a conspiracy
if you can subscribe to their newsletter.")

>Sigh.  That's probably what the CDA crowd wants.  It's hard not to become
>consumed by hatred.

When reading Lovecraft, i always wondered what could be written down that
would drive men mad.  Lovecraft always described it as some cosmic horror.
The cosmic is too far removed for most people to understand.  I have always
thought that instead, it described how the world worked and the driving
motivations behind it, with the firm understanding that there was not a damn
thing you could do to stop it.  The understanding that the world is driven
by the forces of ignorance and stupidity is enough to drive you to the
brink.  The Necronomicon was not written by the Mad Arab, it was written by
Scott Adams.
  
---
|   Remember: Life is not always champagne. Sometimes it is REAL pain.   |
|"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer:         |
| mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!"  | Ignore the man      |
|`finger -l alano@teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key  | behind the keyboard.|
|         http://www.teleport.com/~alano/          | alano@teleport.com  |