Author: Bill Brenner

You might remember my warning about SOPA and the Protect IP ACT, legislation that as written would lead to massive censorship on the Internet. Today there’s some good news.

Mood music:

http://youtu.be/XWhInhE6emE

It appears SOPA is headed for the shelf due to the rising tide of opposition. Details on the site where I do my day job, CSOonline.

I also wrote a post warning people that this isn’t over by a long shot.

We’re working on another story, which I’ll link to here later on this afternoon.

Meantime, a reminder on why these bills are so bad:

When you think of all America’s efforts to protect its citizens, the goal is always to protect A WAY OF LIFE. Our right to free speech and expression. The Internet has allowed that freedom to flourish in the form of personal blogs, social networking and so on. If the government gets the power to block that freedom, all our other security efforts will be rendered meaningless.

That’s my security argument. But let’s look at this in the scope of personal blogging. I started this blog to break stigmas around mental illness and addiction. There are many other blogs out there with similar missions.

This legislation threatens all of it.

A few months ago I wrote a post about how I was ripped off by The Midwest Center For Stress and Anxiety and how, in my experience, it’s a sham. That post has gotten more page views than any other I’ve written, and it has received countless comments, most of them mirroring my own experiences.

If this law were enacted, The Midwest Center could petition the government to block my site for posting content harmful to it’s business interests.

The government would also have greater authority to block much of the content we all post on Facebook.

I don’t deny that there is a problem with pirated content in this country. But this kind of response is typical of the entertainment industry.

Instead of embracing the new ways people choose to get their multimedia content, the industry tries to punish us instead. Their profits are drying up because consumers are abandoning them.

When your business can’t adapt to changing times, it doesn’t survive. It’s simple. It’s fair. The entertainment industry and big software companies can’t handle this simple truth. So they’re using the government to beat consumers into submission.

Don’t let it happen.

The EFF page I link to above makes it very easy for you to send your elected officials a message asking them to vote against this legislation.

Simply go to the top right of the page, enter your zip code, then fill in your name and address.

I did. Now it’s your turn.

Don’t let this bullshit stand.

I used to be a political junkie, getting my fix under the delusion that the fate of the world rested on the outcome on an election. I was particularly obsessed about the N.H. primary.

Mood music:

http://youtu.be/9F8QM3tjkTE

With the 2012 N.H. primary taking place today, I must confess: Never have I cared so little or felt so unrepresented. But this isn’t a post about gloom and doom or the fall of America.

It’s simply about the realization that we sometimes look for our saviors in the wrong places.

As I said, the fate of the world always seemed to hang on the next election. In 1994, when I was a lot more liberal than I am today, I felt devastated and depressed when the GOP swept both chambers of Congress. Two years before that, when Bill Clinton was elected president, I thought all would be right with the world. A lot of people had the same emotional jolt almost four years ago when Obama was elected.

But, you see, I’ve found in more recent years that my personal happiness has absolutely nothing to do with which way the political winds are blowing. What says it all are the lyrics from the Avett Brothers song “Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise” —

When nothing is owed, deserved or expected

And you’re life doesn’t change by the man that’s elected

If your loved by someone you’re never rejected.

Decide what to be and go be it.

My life has taken turns for the better and worse regardless of who is in office. Government can’t change me. Only I can.

I’ve also realized that politicians will fail us every time. Everyone thought Obama would close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and reverse policies where innocent people were detained for years without trial or explanation, then he turns around and signs an unconstitutional defense bill that gives the government power to  do more of the same.

The field of Republican candidates, meanwhile, show no promise. It’s just more of the same, in my opinion.

We don’t know how this election year will turn out, but I do know plenty of things for certain:

1.) The most important parts of my life — family, control over my addictions and managing my mental ticks — are all things I can influence for better or worse. Who goes to Washington is irrelevant in those affairs.

2.) Politics to me is a game, like football. I never cared much for football.

3.) We all have far more control over our own lives than we think. Those of us lucky enough to realize that become increasingly disinterested in the political game.

I do admit that I may have swung too far in the apathetic direction. Maybe some day I’ll find national politics important again. It will never be the way it was. But maybe I’ll find a middle ground.

But not today.

http://youtu.be/UW8UlY8eXCk

You want change? Be the change. Work on the problems that hold you back. Work on being a better spouse, parent, friend and colleague.

When you can do that, you’ll brighten more lives than you ever thought possible.