The United States is ostensibly a democracy. In my high school civics class, we learned that one of the hallmarks of a democracy is that even the government is subject to the rule of law and can be held to account for violations. In order for the government to be accountable, it has to be possible for citizens to know what the government is doing. Much of what the government does is, shall we say, out of public view. Some of this secrecy is probably legitimate (tactical intelligence for ongoing military operations, etc), but much of it is intended to hide illegal activity from public scrutiny. For the government to be accountable, therefore, it has to be possible to make known what is hidden. Shining a light into dark places, is therefore an uncomfortable necessity for democracy to continue to function. WikiLeaks is not a perfect organization, but it has made it easier for the powerful to be thus held to account.

In the case of Courage to Resist, they are raising money for, among other things, the legal defense of Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have leaked a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians to the website Wikileaks (among the dead were two working Reuters reporters; two children were also severely wounded in the attack) Manning is without having had his day in court. I fully understand that Manning is a soldier and that military courts work differently from civilian courts. Yet, I still believe that, in this ostensible democracy, he is entitled to legal defense, and that Courage to Resist has to right to raise money to support that defense.

In my view, by freezing the accounts of WikiLeaks and Courage To Resist accounts, Paypal is standing with those in power who are acting against democracy and the rule of law in this country.

I fully understand that Paypal is a business and has the right to serve or not serve clients as it chooses. The other side of that coin is that I am a customer and I have the right to choose who I want to do business, or not do business with. That is why I am closing my Paypal account, at least until I hear that they change their policy. I urge you, dear reader, to do the same and close your Paypal account.

Update: Looks like I'm late to the party. Courage To Resist reported that Paypal backed down, whether in response to the backlash or for some other reason. They actually reported this before I wrote my posting, so that's egg on my face. Guess I'm keeping my account for now, but I'm exploring alternatives.

The protagonist in the Algebraist, Fassin Taak, lives in a galaxy-wide civilization called the Mercatoria, which was nearly destroyed by AIs long ago, and which is currently under attack by a bunch of terrorists (the Beyonders). A lot of what we do hear is filtered through the Mercatoria - people describe the beyonders in the Mercatoria's terms because that's what they've been allowed to find out. As the novel progresses, we sift through the propaganda and get a different picture.

Turns out that the Mercatoria which seemed pretty normal and good to most of the people who live there, is in reality the hegemonizing oppressive ruler of the galaxy. The Beyonders live in habitats out between the stars because they've been driven away from the central worlds and that's where they can survive. The glimpses we get suggest that everything we've heard is a load of FUD, and they're actually pretty honorable and cool people. I wish we'd gotten more than a few tantalizing glimpses, but maybe that's what makes them so cool.

The Beyonders really struck a huge resonant chord with me. Not their violent actions (though their violence has limits, unlike other groups in the book), but how they have to hide away just so they can live a life free from control. They make me think of the citizens of Zion deep under the sewers of Machine City, the crew of Serenity, who fought on the losing side of a war against the oppressive, conformist Alliance, the ferals of Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica. Or real world Jews, Mennonites and other underground Christian groups (but without the violence), and lots of other groups who just want to be free and do their own thing.

Oh, and free/open-source software people. To be sure, being a GNU/Linux partisan is a lot safer than following some radical religious or political idea, but it definitely takes sacrifice and work to stay free in the face of slick, seductive proprietary software (I'm not immune - my PowerBook boots OS X as well as Ubuntu and I use Ableton Live for music). Open source people have to carve out their own community and make their own space in the cracks of the harsh business landscape.

So anyway. To Linux, the official OS of the diaspora and the underground. It's probably installed on The Serenity and software libre most probably runs the Beyonders' mesh network.

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When are people going to figure out that there IS no "liberal media conspiracy"? This betrays a lack of understanding of how the media functions, and an incredible passivity.

Media companies produce shows/movies/games BECAUSE PEOPLE WATCH/PLAY THEM (and watch the ads that go with them). Media companies really only care about advertising dollars, and will cancel even really good shows (like Firefly, Futurama, Joan of Arcadia, etc.) if not enough people watch them (i.e. if they can't sell enough ads).

If you don't like something, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WATCH IT! Nobody's forcing you! And if you and enough other people don't watch something, it will usually go away because it's not profitable to produce. Sheesh!

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He was also plugging his new book, The Great Awakening, but that was the takeaway quote. I really really hope it turns out to be true.

I am ashamed to admit that I don't watch The Daily Show every evening. I wish I could but Una and I chose not to have cable - it's expensive and we hardly ever watch TV since the internet is so much more interesting. So I heard about this from Revolution in Jesusland, an great blog by a liberal guy who writes about a great awakening among religious conservatives that will hopefully bring some fresh change to our culture and politics.