Yesterday, my 21st Century Global Governance professor was talking about a country’s ability to prevent individuals from accessing the Internet.  He was talking about it in the context of the Arab Spring.  He said that the Egyptian government tried to bar its citizens from the Internet, but it didn’t possess the strength or technology to completely prevent people from accessing online information.

However, he began to talk about the United States’ government.  Essentially, our government has the ability to turn the Internet “off.”  Through U.S. companies and its own expansive power, our government could disable the Internet if it chose to.  Additionally, if someone were somehow able to create their own transmitter to pick up signals, our government possesses the technology to burn out any transmitters within a certain radius.  This would guarantee that no computer would be able to gain access to any connection.  He said that he’s not sure how well this would work in reality, but he stressed that the United States’ government has much more power than countries that we deem to be non-democratic.

We believe that we live in a free society.  Yet, our government has the power to deny us our rights at any point.  In the case of a full-scale revolt, it could blackout our whole nation.  That is absolutely frightening.  I’m not sure why I wasn’t completely aware of this beforehand.

The first week of this new quarter isn’t even over, and I’m already feeling exhausted.

Back to school on Monday.

hayekshomie:

hipsterlibertarian:

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. — Albert Einstein 

Watch and share.

This is quite beautiful. 

Incredible