Feb 22 1996

The Choice is Clear

The Likud's reduced to rumor and innuendo to generate fear as its primary electoral tactic, divided upon itself in the same way the Republican Party is fracturing over Patrick Buchanan, whose rhetoric and disingenuous demagoguery is rooted in the same totaliarian nationalism that spawned fasicsm. Of course, Labor (and the Democrats) have a tendency to shoot itself in the foot. In Israel, the choice is clear: What's better -- to need the army to get to Ma'arat Hamachpela aka The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, or to make a peace that enables MacDonalds to open a Palestinian franchise in downtown Hebron?

Neither place -- the tomb nor the burger joint -- is our idea of a fun place to visit. We prefer cyberspace, and therefore opened Ariga's own little Cyberspace Nation Web this week.

You'll find the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, written in Davos, Switzerland by a founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in outrage at the demonstration of the ignorance of the political establishment about the Internet, as proven by Bill Cinton signing a media deregulation bill that pleased a lot of corporate interests -- and tried to curtail free speech on the Internet.

Also in protest of the Communications Decency Act, which is motivated by a desire to control what can and cannot be put on the 'net, Dave Winer and Friends started the Great Cyberspace Democracy Chain.

Ariga's contribution to the thread is The Internet is not American. it is Global., from which you, too can join a quickly growing global chain. Add your own 2 cents. You can use the Home Link on the mirrored page to get to the heart of the project, which was announced a few days before George Washington's birthday and geared up for a 24 hour blast into cyberspace of as many messages as possible to speak our minds against any attempt to curtail Free Speech on the net.

In Israel, too, there is a debate underway about Free Speech, with the "nationalist camp" complaining that their legitimate political attacks on Shimon Peres and his government are being called "incitement" by the "peace camp."

Both are right. Nonetheless, so far, the political violence against individuals and groups has come from the "nationalist camp." It's only natural, of course. "Nationalist Camps" -- Buchanan's or Bibi's -- are always predicated on one form or another of Supremacist theories, no matter how moderated they are in the name of legitimate patriotism.

Yet we remain optimistic, for luckily, it's intrinsic to the Internet that Supremacists -- White, Black, Red or Green; Muslim, Christian, Jewish or Buddhist -- always appear as bufoons to the vast majority of people on the net who don't ascribe to the asburdity of any fundamentalist theology.

Yes, they will always gather their crowds, but no, they can not in democracies become majorities, because they cannot create consensus, and though they promise stability through "values" promise upheaval with their programs. Even if their numbers seem to grow absolutely, relative to the growth of the Internet itself they are but a shallow and easily fordable streams of thought in the infinitely vast ocean of ideas that the 'net collects and disseminates like a living organism.