more on Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
Date: September 26, 2004 6:50:56 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc:
Subject: Re: [IP] Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship

 DAVE - NOTE ITEM TO REMOVE BELOW.

 at least in the US they could - and I hope would! - complain about it 
publicly.  It's those *internal* complaints, along with civil 
disobedience, that are - or at least were - so key to the US's 
success.   Complaints of foreigners are usually ignored.

 Personally, I'd like to see Google protest.

 Yet this is a complicated issue (as I am not the first to observe).  
It's easy for me to advise Google to protest - or to take its servers 
and go home.

 Clearly,  Google would be evil to accede to such a policy in the US; 
it's their country.  But if they complained in China, would they have 
any impact? Would they even be heard? Or would they just be thrown 
out?  what about trade embargos of evil states that harm their people? 
Which battles are worth fighting, and which are distractions?  And how 
much harm has the US government's own behavior - vis a vis 
surveillance, detention and the like, let alone treatment of prisoners 
- done to its moral credibility over the past couple of years?

 yet in China (I was just in HK), people don't understand the 
subtleties: that the USG is not the same as the people.  By 
contrast,    precisely because of the censorship and media control, 
people in China are much more in synch with what their government 
does.  It's the usual: yes, our local officials are corrupt, but the 
national government is good and is trying to root out corruption.

 Slippery slope - got an icepick?

 It's a question all of us who operate in "unpleasant" regimes face: 
How much compromise is too much, and undercuts one's message?  How can 
you do good in a place that kicks you out?  You make a point, but do 
you do good? 

 It's even harder to maintain your ethics once you have 
compromised....yet that's the point at which you are most able to make 
a point if you have the courage to do so.  You have to join the 
committee to resign in protest, but once you join it gets harder and 
harder to leave.


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