|
|
|
It isn't that bad yet because some copies of the original broadcast still exist. However, there's a concerted effort to eliminate VCRs completely. You can't even get old ones repaired. How much longer will the recordings on videocassettes be viewable? Here's another thing to consider. While it's true that one falsification of a historical account doesn't constitute "a long train of abuses and usurpations", it's also true that the revision of Vietnam: a Television History isn't the only example of attempts to revise information or to prevent access to it. Much of the information that's available today is available via the internet. That medium is under attack. The Frontiersman Website was, for a while, hosted on the Awardspace hosting service. Early in 2011, that hosting service began to block access to selected issues of the newsletter. Here's an excerpt from their explanation.
Awardspace content filtering blocked access to a large number of issues of the newsletter. Access to the specific issue addressed in the explanation, above, was blocked because that issue contained a letter to the editor that was, at the time of its publication, a part of the ongoing discussion of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. The same "forbidden words" were on most of the news services in the country at that time but, by January of 2011, those words had become forbidden, even on a political website to which access was entirely voluntary. Not only was I expected to adjust the content of a published document, a la The Ministry of Truth, I was prohibited from even knowing which words I was prohibited from using in the document. Such enforcement of forbidden words is a chilling reminder of Orwell's Newspeak.
Not all hosting services use automatic content filtering (yet) so I was able to find other hosting for The Frontiersman Website. However, that only led to the next item in what's beginning to look like a "long train of abuses and usurpations". Surveillance of internet use, it seems, has become pervasive. In February of 2011, I received this report from a subscriber.
So, you can be harassed or even punished for visiting an unapproved website. It gets worse. If I send an email message to a customer who uses the Yahoo email service and, if my message includes a link to any of the locations of The Frontiersman Website, then Yahoo refuses to deliver the message for "policy reasons". One time, when I experimentally replaced the link with an image of the link, Yahoo delivered the message but removed the image. I've suggested to those of my correspondents who use Yahoo that they should cancel their Yahoo accounts. I'm not aware of any one of them who's actually done so. The excuses that I've received have been lame.
Yahoo isn't the only institution that blocks links to The Frontiersman Website. For a year or more, there's been a filter on my outgoing email. I don't know who installed it or For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
|
when it was installed. I discovered it
after I became aware that some of my email messages were not being delivered
to the intended recipients. Here's how the filter works. If
I send an email message that includes a link to the main location of The
Frontiersman Website, then that message is intercepted and deleted.
Another message that's identical except for the link will be delivered
immediately. I occasionally send pairs of test messages to see if
the filter is still working. So far, it is.
It's beginning to seem a lot like a "long train of abuses and usurpations". It isn't even a surprise. Indeed, it's been long anticipated. Here are some observations from 1996, when the internet was young.
It might have been impossible to implement such a scheme using the technology that was available in 1996. The technology that's available today is entirely equal to the task. There was some freedom in the country when it was young but, even then, the advocates of repression were hard at work. When they couldn't move by force, they moved by stealth. Incrementalism was their tool. When the internet was young, again we had some freedom. Again, the advocates of repression were hard at work. Again, incrementalism was their tool. We haven't yet lost the battle of the internet, but we're losing it. Private email messages are intercepted, scanned, and deleted at the whim of the self-proclaimed guardians of communications decency. Back in February of 2001, visits by Americans to the Iraqi national website were blocked. Today, even visits by Americans to American websites of which the authorities disapprove are discouraged by selectively blocking access to the websites, by depriving potential visitors of the addresses, or by harassing or punishing people who manage to visit the websites anyway. In the larger situation, outside of the internet, historical documentaries can be "corrected" according to the current political dogma. All publishers and news agencies are licensed by the government. The power to license is the power to control. Thus, all information sources are, at least potentially, tools of the government. The deterioration of freedom in the country is a long-standing trend. I perceive that the deterioration of freedom on the internet began to accelerate at about the beginning of 2011. It was already present before that but, since then, it seems to be getting worse faster than was previously the case. So, maybe 2012 is the critical year. Maybe the deterioration has reached a critical point after which it will reinforce itself. Maybe if we don't reverse the trend this year, then we'll no longer have the means to even complain to one another about it. We need to win this battle and it seems like most of us aren't even fighting it yet. The longer we wait, the more difficult it will become. The sooner people get started, the easier it will be for them to "throw off such government" and to "right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed". Why are we waiting? Let's get started. Request
For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
|
Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; my mother; Dewey and Betty; Sir Donald the Elusive; Eric, of Ione, California; and Steve, of Mililani, Hawaii. — editor
Rules of the Workplace Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by David, of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Interesting Facts Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by Steve, of Mililani, Hawaii. I didn't try to verify any of them.
Frontiersman Subscriptions and Past Issues — Printed copies of this newsletter, either subscriptions or past issues, are available by application only. Cancellations — If you don't want to keep receiving this newsletter, then return it unopened. When I receive it, I'll terminate your subscription. Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material. Submissions — I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you want to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders, please inquire. For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc. — Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor
For PayPal payments, use Frontiersman@manlymail.net.
|
|
|