In a move reminiscent of Minority Report the pre-cogs at the FCC this week took measures to stop crimes that have not yet happened by proclaiming the Internet to be a public utility, and as such, appropriately regulated by the bureaucracy they preside over. It is part of a disturbing trend begun by President Obama whereby policy affecting millions is decided by a few men clandestinely operating outside the boundaries of the Constitution; the self-proclaimed elite deciding what is best for the country outside the prescribed methods for enacting law.
It was a straight party line vote whereby the three Democrat commissioners, at the behest of President Obama, overruled the two Republicans and instituted the concept of “Net Neutrality” which ostensibly says that all data should be transmitted equally over the internet, without preferential fast lanes being given or sold to big companies like Netflix or Hulu. On it’s face, that sounds like a simple and laudable aim, but the fact that the decade long battle to bring us to this place was spearheaded by George Soros and socialist Robert McChesney should give us pause as to what the ultimate intentions are. The initial package of regulations will require hundreds of pages to cover what reasonably could be expressed in a single paragraph. That will soon grow to thousands of pages of regulations, if not millions, and eventually all this regulation will need to be paid for somehow… taxes and fees, taxes and fees.
There is a Cherokee legend of a grandfather who speaks to his grandson of the two wolves that live within him, one evil and full of lies and greed, the other good and full of kindness and benevolence. The two wolves are always at war, and when the grandson asks which will win, the grandfather replies, “The one you feed.” It’s a good life lesson as far as the wolves represent the duality of our own spirit. Politically though, we sometimes extend the lesson of the wolves to the battle between free market capitalism and progressive government regulation. The left sees capitalism as the evil wolf full of greed and the love of money. The public is a helpless lamb that must be protected by the good wolf of progressive government through intervention and regulation. The right sees the bad wolf as the government, full of the lust for power and control, ever battling the good wolf of capitalism, by whose prosperity the public lamb could be made fat. The left views the government as the knight in shining armor, here to save the day; and the right sees capitalist giants as Superman, fighting for truth, justice and the American way. Rather than argue about which wolf is the good one, we need to correct the Cherokee depiction of the nature of wolves. There are no heroes here, and lambs ought not trust in the kindness of wolves.
We play a reckless game in trusting that the money of big business can keep the tyranny of government at bay, or that the power of government can keep the greed of big business in check. It is senseless to run from the jaws of one wolf to the lair of another. These are two carnivores, and they will play the good cop/bad cop routine until half-eaten we realize that we have made a poor choice of savior. Our mistake is in assuming that we are lambs in need of counting on the protection of wolves. If we are lambs, we are lambs with a lion’s heart, and the wolves fear us. We are the consumer, we are the electorate… we are the mob. We need no savior from among men, we are King of this jungle! We will handle capitalist greed with the tools of the free market; we will handle political corruption in the public square and at the ballot box. On the rare occasion that we require the services of one of these wolves against the other, we will have it done in the light of day with trepidation and suspicion.
IMHO: We do ourselves an injustice by always assuming the role of a victim. We are no helpless lamb at the mercy of corporations and government. From the days of ancient Rome, it has been understood that Emperors only rule by the permission of the people. Corporations ultimately need the cooperation of consumers to survive. Not all corporations or government officials are self-serving predators, and these deserve our support, but the wolves we feed will be the ones that win, and we will be the ones that lose; wolves don’t lie with lambs in this world, they eat them.
Since bandwidth is limited preferential treatment of parties who are willing to pay a premium will result in a lack of service for everybody else. The internet is a public means of communication and net neutrality should be a given. Free market capitalism often creates a marketplace where consumers are powerless and cannot act as “the mob”, to use your words. This is particularly true in infrastructure-heavy sectors where entrance barriers are high, such as telecommunication. Here, regulation actually increases competition. A single company owning the fiber grid for an entire region, for instance, can set prices at its own discretion unless regulatory measures are taken that would force such a company to open up its grid for competitors. One of the reason why Americans are paying so much for phone, internet, cable televison etc. services compared to, let’s say, Europeans, is a lack of regulation. Free market capitalism typically does not result in more choices for consumers; the opposite is the case.
I’d glad you addressed this problem. The net has done just fine so far without the aid of government. This was all done in the dark before anyone had read it…so much for transparency! It is a subject we need to shine the light on because they never stop trying. They tried in 2005,2010 and now again. Hopefully the courts will overturn them as they did before but we can’t give in to it. We MUST fight and remain eternally alert. I, one of God’s little lambs, don’t want to be eaten by THESE wolves.