IP: One persons opinions on Barlows declaration -- Enemies of

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 12:46:53 -0800
From: Mark Stahlman (via RadioMail) <stahlman () radiomail net>




Folks:


I hate to say I told you so, but . . . Barlow's back in his brand new Alvin
Toffler halloween outfit.  Scary?  Dangerous?  Perverse?  All of the above?


Check out the Barlow essay at the top of Smolan's 24 Hours site -- "One
Man's Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace."  (URL:
http://www4.cyber24.com/essay/frontiers_essay.html)  It's a real killer.


Killer to the sovereignty of nation-states and the capability of nations to
defend themselves against oligarchs.  Killer to the capability to grow a
national economy and enrich its citizens.  Killer to liberty and killer to
human hope.


By declaring cyberspace independent from sovereign nations, Barlow is
placing another brick in the wall of the one-world prison (the modern
Panopticon) now being constructed around us.  By declaring cyberspace to be
immaterial, Barlow is feeding the anti-growth, matter-doesn't-matter
ideology that was created to justify mass slaughter.  By declaring
cyberspace "the new home of Mind", Barlow is promoting and participating in
the attempts to use the Net as the latest and most powerful in a string of
MK-ULTRA mind-control technologies.


Barlow is completely dishonest about the reality in which cyberspace is
imbedded.  Coercion is a very real threat and an ever increasing danger, as
is starvation, poverty and degradation -- the true legacy of
post-industrial society.  The surveillance state -- for whom Barlow works
-- is only getting stronger.  And, misusing the fury of the Net about
attacks on the First Amendment to the Constitution as a weapon to destroy
that Constitution itself (yup, the Toffler/Barlow plan is a form of "one
world government") is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.


> From consulting to the NSA to taking personal responsibility for releasing
the FBI/EFF Wiretap Bill, Barlow has demonstrated his priorities and his
allegiances over and over.  He is a spokesman for the "Brainlords" -- the
neologism created by Gingrich's PFF think-tanker Vlahos to describe the 5%
of the population who will be in charge in the terrifying new feudalism of
his "ByteCity."  Like Toffler and Vlahos standing behind him, Barlow is a
committed enemy of liberty.  He does not and cannot speak for the Net.


Mark Stahlman
New Media Associates
New York City