Why 2012, despite privacy fears, isn't like Orwell's 1984, CNN Writes Pro SOPA Story! Spread This!, page 1

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ATS Members have flagged this thread 3 times

Topic started on 24-1-2012 @ 07:07 AM by Agent_USA_Supporter

Soruce CNN

Last week was a remarkable one for the Web: A week that proved George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" incredibly prescient yet woefully incorrect.

The past week's events also upturned Orwellian predictions of centralized power. Opponents of SOPA, a proposed anti-piracy bill, seeded a grass-roots uprising on social networks. This culminated in the temporary shutdown of Wikipedia, Reddit and other websites last Wednesday.

The aim: To demonstrate how untenable these user-generated websites would be if SOPA were passed. The online protest was extremely effective: On Friday, the chief sponsor of SOPA pulled the bill "until there is wider agreement on a solution."

Pete Cashmore is an Idiot,Useful Moron, a Sheep

What kind of a world Pete Cashmore is he living in? well this isn't a surprise.

Coming From CNN a news network that Ignores and Blackouts Ron Paul completely are now and its writers are writing Pro SOPA articles Blah disgusting

edit on 1/24/2012 by tothetenthpower because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:20 AM by Lagrimas

How is that article in any way pro sopa??
It says that internet users, who like sharing their info online, as much of it as possible (which he is completely correct about) also lead a grass root uprising AGAINST SOPA.

This article in no way supports SOPA. and is informative, and certainly not in any way disgusting !?

Why are people giving you stars? SOPA is BAD. This article is informative, and actually says that PEOPLE DONT LIKE SOPA because it STOPS them doing what they want. Which is what we on ATS all agree with!!! Dont star this thread! are u bonkers!?

edit on 24-1-2012 by Lagrimas because: extra line

edit on 24-1-2012 by Lagrimas because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:24 AM by Agent_USA_Supporter

reply to post by Lagrimas

This article in no way supports SOPA. and is informative, and certainly not in any way disgusting !?

Wow really? i guess that means you havent read it then

Hench the title
Why 2012, despite privacy fears, isn't like Orwell's 1984
and have you seen the pro SOPA statements by Pete in it? is trying to say to the readers, OH DON'T BE SILLY you have nothing to fear from SOPA OR PIPA.

Sorry for the caps that was the point he was trying to make.

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:28 AM by Lagrimas

reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter

I read it in its entirety. Whether u like it or not, people DO actually want to share everything about their lives.

My ex girlfriend loves sharing everything!!!!!!

I know you and I dont, but a lot of people do, they LIKe having advertisements tailored for them, they like having people know they lost a pound this week, they like people knowing they just pood their pants.

I know its odd, but these people are also the majority!

Unfortunately this is something YOU are going to have to come to terms with.

Luckily most if not all of those people also hate SOPA! (when you tell them about it and what it means)

Hence the title of the article is correct, because unfortunately people do want these things and so its really not orwells vision at all, but a far far scarier one.

edit on 24-1-2012 by Lagrimas because: extra line again

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:39 AM by DancedWithWolves

I read it and I don't believe this is pro SOPA at all either. The author's points and summary of the situation are in the last two paragraphs.

The world of 2012 is both reminiscent of Orwell's vision and radically at odds with it. Connected lifestyles are creating a world in which sharing your activities may become the norm, albeit through choice and not coercion. And yet this connected society is also empowering people in new ways, providing a counterweight to big business and big government.

While Orwell correctly predicted that technological advances would let authorities track our lives, he failed to predict the inverse: That we would use these new technologies to keep an eye on them, too.

My bold added.

Technology, he says, allows us to be as open, by choice, or share under a pseudonym, if one so chooses

For example, all of the Federalist Papers were signed by Publius, a pseudonym representing the trio of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. The papers were written partially in response to several Anti-Federalist Papers, also written under pseudonyms. As a result of this pseudonymity, historians know that the papers were written by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay, but have not been able to discern which of the three authored certain papers.

Wikipedia

Link to join ATS and get your own Publiusesque avatar today-Absolutely free!

Mainly, his point is that yes people are willing to share a lot via facebook and other sites but technology especially lets us be more a part of the workings by "authorities" too. People want to be involved, and through technology, can be more so a part of discussing and determining the future, for all of us. That is a new twist on 1984 that completely changes the plot and, perhaps, the ending.

Be well and do good things.

P.S. you still have time to edit the OP.

edit on 24-1-2012 by DancedWithWolves because: Added useful link.

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:45 AM by SergeantTrammelant

Unlike in Orwell's dystopian world, however, people today are making a conscious choice to do so.

This sentence is wrong on so many levels. It may look like a conscious choice, but the whole world is indoctrinated into accepting a very small portion of possibilities as their reality. Even though their choices may look 'free', it is actually taking place within a very confined area.

We are being manipulated into thinking we want this lifestyle. Children born today grow up with Facebook, Google, XBOX, PlayStation and Twitter. It is for them what the playground and the forest were for me when I was a kid.

These children grow up setting the new precedent, indoctrinating (unwillingly) their children into a even more confined area of reality. And all that the eyes see is 'free choice' and 'progress'. Very soon children will be born whose parents don't know better than that the world is biometrics, internet and war.

Damn it, I never see kids outside just playing anymore..

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 07:55 AM by DancedWithWolves

reply to post by SergeantTrammelant

I wouldn't underestimate today's kids that way.

The one's I'm partial to can distance run outside and be knight elves off to save the kingdom.

While there are many things wrong, today's young people also are growing up in a world where technology can show them the truths of the world, and they know how to find it. Knowledge, which was logistically impossible for earlier generations to access en mass, is now available with the subtle stroke of a few keys.

It isn't all bad. Many of them, "get it."

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 08:02 AM by Rockpuck

reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter

I think what he may have been trying to say is that .. 2012 does indeed look like an Orwellian World .. but instead of a Government forcing it onto us we seem to have embraced it ourselves.

Which we have. SOPA still sucks, but he makes good points on our willingness to both track ourselves and allow third parties track us willingly, as well as the ability to track the Government (and vice versa)

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 08:06 AM by Rockpuck

reply to post by SergeantTrammelant

Damn it, I never see kids outside just playing anymore..

That's because the ones that are outside get stuffed into a creepy white van. Duh.

Seriously though, the internet is a blessing and a curse for kids.. I didn't have internet when I was a kid, but to think if I had access to virtual information for any question I could possibly think of??? And porn .. that would have been great. Alas, I didn't get internet until later in my teens.

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 08:10 AM by Lagrimas

That's because the ones that are outside get stuffed into a creepy white van. Duh.

reply to post by Rockpuck

Good one

Hehe if the white van has candy in it, im getting in too! :p

edit on 24-1-2012 by Lagrimas because: (no reason given)

reply posted on 24-1-2012 @ 08:15 AM by CaticusMaximus

reply to post by SergeantTrammelant

I agree, its sad the state of the youth today. Not that the state of the youth has ever been really good in the eyes of the older generation, but I think its obvious that its really taken a severe turn for the worse in at least the past 10, 12, 15 years.