Knowledge is power
Written by Jamie Freeman
Knowledge is power, as the well-worn expression goes. When people try to restrict access to knowledge what they're really trying to do is restrict access to power - and retain it for themselves.
If I were to 'know' everything, there would be nothing you could hide from me. I could form my own opinions. I could decide this way or that.
That, of course, is the polar opposite of what a politician would wish for! A politician exists to further their own ends. They would, of course, argue that they exist to further 'the people's ends, but generally only their kind of people.
That's why one of the first things people in power deal with is some form of censorship, from the relatively mild cherry-picking of truths, to the downright hiding and forbidding of certain other truths.
Information wants to be free
This is another expression, slightly less well known, but beloved of the geek set. It suggests - to me at least - that the natural state for a piece of knowledge is to be at liberty. It's only when someone tries to 'own' it that it is tied down and restricted.
Libertarians might use that as an excuse for stealing my information, but I feel it's my right to use my inventions to my advantage. It's not like I'm about to discover the cure for cancer mind you, more likely I'll just come up with a cool way to deal with online orders or something dull like that...
Knowledge and information are essentially the same thing for these purposes. So Information is power. In business we use this power to further our own cause, and within limits I don't see any problem with that. At Message we've 'invented' a load of cool things. Often just variations on what has gone before, but a little different, a little better, and a little more likely to win us the next project to pay our wages.
The problem arises when business and self-interest drive politics, but I don't see that changing any time soon.
That's why it's important to remember that when governments suggest that you, the people, shouldn't be able to find information about whatever the hell you please on Google, Wikipedia, Twitter and the rest, they may not actually be looking out for your best interests.
And if government isn't going to look out for your best interests, who is?
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