Johanna Faust, a mixed race Jew, prefers to publish pseudonymously. She is committed: first, to preventing war, ecological disaster, and nuclear apocalypse; last to not only fighting for personal privacy & the freedom of information, but, by representing herself as a soldier in that fight, to exhorting others to do the same. She is a poet, always. All these efforts find representation here: "ah, Mephistophelis" is so named after the last line of Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, whose heretical success flouted the censor for a time. 













































































































































          

        

          

        










Tell Them To Look It Up: 
Stupid 'Nothing to Hide' Argument 
Now On Wikipedia


















Perhaps it could go something like this:







"Did you hear," I said, "that Snowden gave the alternate Christmas address that airs in Britain every year in response to the official one from the Crown?" I was never good at meaningless conversation.  I read the news.







"Really?"  He made a face like a small town accountant taking an enormous dump.  "I'm surprised they even give the time of day to such a traitor."







"Traitor?!" If you knew me, you'd be able to tell from the tones in my voice that any attempt to make small talk went out the window.  "You think he's a traitor?!  You didn't want to know about all the warrantless surveillance, the erosion of our civil liberties? Not to mention the damage done to the economy by the NSA having broken everything in order to get past encryption!  Not to mention the damage done to our reputation! Do you realize what it does to our economy? Who trusts American security?  Did you know RSA themselves said 'Don't use our software?'" 







Not to mention the blow to the creativity born of a free and open exchange of ideas.  







If we hadn't had the freedom to think, to hack, the innovation upon which the modern age is built would never have been born.  If this freedom is killed, prosperity dies with it, and all the promise of the internet age.  







But I would no doubt have not mentioned that, having noticed how, suddenly, you could hear a pin drop. I go on, projecting my voice, hoping for eloquence somehow.







"Aren't you afraid of how fascist and totalitarian the government has gotten?"







I can tell he thinks I am wrong, especially on the last point, and that I should be wrong.  "If we cannot stop them," I say, "at least now we can talk about it. Maybe, just maybe, if we are smart, we can defend against it!"  He is shaking his head patronizingly, righteously expecting to be agreed with.  I get a little emotional again, and say "Don't you.... You don't mind being spied on constantly?"







He shrugs his shoulders, smug.  "I don't get so...  stressed..."  -- he waves his drink in my general direction -- "about it, like some people. I don't see the point, and I have better things to do. Let them look at me,  I don't mind.  I'm not doing anything wrong, so I'm not worried."  And then he said it.



 "I don't have anything to hide."  













Well, Gentle Readers, happy tidings! Peace on earth furthered and good will propagated! Now you needn't dread the rest of the conversation; thanks to this gift to the world from the kind and wise folks at Wikipedia, you can just tell them to look it up.  Thank you, Wikipedia: I for one am saved countless future hours in which I will no longer need to risk engaging personally with such idiots. 





















































Lets hear it for all the time we'll save.  Hella cool.  You can even email someone a link processed through LMGTFY, if you are feeling especially snarky (I have appended an example; if can't see it, below, try going here).  
























Think and do peace: a better world is possible.







Let's create it.











Be seeing you,











put here for your consideration by



on this









































3 comments:








  1. AnonymousDecember 26, 2013 at 7:01 AM
    I have to laugh in someone's face when they cite Wiki as "a source". It's as silly as anyone STILL using Google and Facebook.

    I patiently explain to them that 'open source' means only open to those who go along with a Mosssad-controlled website, and I tell them to go home and post ONE item about something like the 5 Israeli Mossad agents arrested that morning - WITH EXPLOSIVES IN THEIR VAN - and then deported on "passport violations", and the incident NEVER AGAIN MENTIONED BY GOV' NOR MSM. 

    And then monitor how long that lasts - I mean - Wiki being all 'open', and whatnot..

    Sadly, I don't know which way this is turning out. Roughly 50% of Americans STILL believe in obama (I won't capitalize his name), STILL watch MSM, STILL look up Wiki, and mostly?

    Simple apathy. Most Americans will simply NOT care - until it's too late TO care.

    'Occams'

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 26, 2013 at 9:08 AM
    You forgot the counter argument - Everyone have something to hide, all you have to do, is look hard and long enough.
    ReplyDelete
  3. a female FaustDecember 27, 2013 at 5:25 AM
    i didn't forget it -- because i was letting wikipedia do  the work.  i figured they were good enough to answer my imaginary patronising partygoer.   at least to get him started.....

    thanks for the addition.  much appreciated.  and the conversation.
    ReplyDelete




























        

      









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