Why We Should Blog

Everyone has heard of the Great Firewall of China. If you were in MUWCI last year, maybe you went to the Chinese students' presentation on it. They told us about how restrictive it is and how it functions. This was very interesting. Apparently the Great Firewall is not so incredibly effective because of the advanced technology that it uses but because of the fear that it creates in the Chinese population, a "Big Brother factor". In fact it is quite easy to get through, and this post is about circumventing the Great Firewall.

The Great Firewall is one of the Chinese government's most effective methods of insulating their country. In the Internet age, it is probably the only way to even attempt to brainwash the whole population of a country. It allows the government to filter what it wants its citizens to know about the outside world. The converse is also true, for it ensures that the outside does not communicate with the Chinese people, either.

The Internet is supposed to be a free domain, outside the jurisdiction of any one body. It is supposed to be uncensored and accessible to all. The Great Firewall is against the philosophy on which the Internet is based. And this is for a good reason, for the Internet is one of the most powerful tools activists have today. It is incredibly useful for "the Multitude" that Michael talked about in his super-cool Global Affairs session (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitude). Separatists and anti-government activists used to have secret meetings in sewers or some other such dark, dingy places. Now they meet in the vast, unwatched underbelly of the Internet. If the Chinese government didn't block access to the Internet, it would be in deep trouble. Historically, the only reason most totalitarian regimes lasted as long as they did was because of propaganda and a tight control of channels of communication.

There are a brave few who do regularly subvert the Chinese government's total control and bypass the Great Firewall. They risk a lot by doing so, but they hope the importance of what they are doing merits the risks they take. Primarily, these people are bloggers. By putting their blogs out on the Internet, they expose the injustice of the Chinese government to the whole world. Not that this helps a great deal with the situation in China. The outside world has virtually no say on what goes on in China, especially in this economic crisis in which China is basically supporting the world. This is a very sad situation, for it either means that the vast majority of people and governments do not care about the basic rights of others, or that they are content to let others suffer as long as they do not have to experience the same suffering. Blogging is a way out of this, however, for it creates the possibility of free speech within China. This possibility is all it takes. I believe that as long as there is the slightest possibility, it is only a matter of time for people to seize it. And once that happens, there is no way the Chinese government can keep subjugating over a billion Chinese people.

Perhaps the title of my post is a bit of a misnomer. This post had nothing to do with why we should blog. The reason we should blog is because Mark tells us we should. The reason people in China should blog is much more intense and scary and important. I'm not really sure how philosophical this post was, either. Hopefully it will engender introspection (no I'm not kidding) and after all, introspection is basically what we do in philosophy (not really). This was not very funny either. It was a serious post. If it was interesting, you might want to go and read some of the blogs coming out of Tibet here: http://www.highpeakspureearth.com/. Personally, I think it's very interesting; I'm doing my EE on it.