The Cuckoo's Net

I can go anywhere I want. I can read or watch anything I want. I can listen, I can buy. I can download, cut, paste, burn. I’m talking, of course, about the Internet, also known as “the net,” the giant emporium of multimedia text and images that forms the global playland of young and old alike. But not if the corporate Big Brothers take it over. If that happens, you and I might find ourselves on a slow, three-foot wave surfing kiddy pools while those who are willing to pay more get to shoot the pipeline.

So much for net neutrality, the notion that free speech, capitalism, and democracy are inherently ours to use openly as we wish, without restriction, censorship, or exclusion.

I love the Internet because
But if the corporate conglomerates put their big d___s in the net, animal-rights organizations like PETA could find that web pages containing information about animal cruelty, factory farming, furs, and pharmaceutical and cosmetic testing won’t load, load slowly, or perhaps donors will no longer be able to make online donations. If you want to support an organization, you may have to pay to access their site.

I visited New York City’s Chinatown once, where you could play or watch other people play tic-tac-toe with a chicken. The chicken won every time. She had to. Unless she won, she didn’t eat. Food was her reward for playing. That’s net neutrality folks: you bet, you lose.

YOU, however, can keep the net free, like the good person who freed “Lily” the chicken.

Becoming humane means waking up to personal responsibility. There are no masters, only slaves. Instead of asking, “How can the banks and corporate giants keep getting away with it?” or “How did this war start?” or “Can I trust the media?” become a citizen journalist and free the chicken inside of you. Free other chickens! Peck away at your keyboards, write your elected representatives, refuse to pay higher prices to participate in democracy, refuse to bail out the pigs on Wall Street. Refuse to be caged.

Images from Google images. Cartoon by Peter Steiner, Copyrighted by the New Yorker.