American Thinker - As the Internet becomes more important, the claims on it increase. Those claims cannot all be met. It is a time for choosing.
Defining the Internet as the sum of the design decisions that are now ubiquitously deployed, the Internet deeply embeds American values. Just as close examination of DNA explicates sources in bio-history, close examination of Internet's methods of communications does the same.
The Internet was built by academics, researchers, and hackers -- meaning that it embodies the (classically) liberal cum libertarian cultural interpretation of "American values," namely that it is open, non-hierarchical, self organizing, and leaves essentially no opportunities for governance beyond a few rules of how to keep two parties in communication over the wire. Anywhere the Internet appears, it brings those values with it (treating censorship as a delivery failure, say). Other cultures, other governments, know that these are our strengths and that we are dependent upon them, hence as they adopt the Internet they become dependent on those strengths and thus on our values. A greater challenge to sovereignty does not exist. Read More
