The real issue is control. The Internet is too widespread to be easily dominated by any single government. By creating a seamless global economic zone, anti-sovereign and unregulatable, the Internet calls into question the very idea of a nation-state.

But generally speaking, I felt to engage in the political process was to sully oneself to such a degree that whatever came out wasn't worth the trouble put in.

If all ideas have to be bought, then you have an intellectually regressive system that will assure you have a highly knowledgeable elite and an ignorant mass.

The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops.

The Corporate impulse for human uniformity instills shame at difference and, thus, the contemporary zeal for privacy.

I personally think intellectual property is an oxymoron. Physical objects have a completely different natural economy than intellectual goods. It's a tricky thing to try to own something that remains in your possession even after you give it to many others.

One may as well be optimistic. The road to catastrophe will be rougher if it's paved with dread.