Freedom is in Peril

Freedom in Peril

When the last Home Page is indexed, content filtered, untried,
and the oldest critic muzzled, youngest webmaster tried,
we'll pass to a peaceful era - consensus I.C.T.
with vain dissension silenced by silent majority.

When the last blog link’s dismounted from Google China Inc.,
when the will to think’s discounted on online skating rink,
when all conforms to pattern on WiFi or on screen
what trace will the future filter of joys that might have been ?

We'll hearken to soothing spokesmen comment on ICANN news,
and few will doubt or question, fewer express their views.
Only the good shall be favoured, only the hackers shall fall,
then last shreds of opposition need never be threaded at all.

When the dotcom start ups melt down, when click and mortar thrive,
when the inner cities downtown property prices dive -
transfrontier teleworking distorts economy -
then little chance of shirking entrenched monopoly.

When AOL Time Warner with Murdoch Fox unite,
when CNN-Universal shall bark replace with bite
when the World Wide Web turns spider, our conscienceness cocoons,
what independent rider will star in free cartoons ?

When baby bells in orbit return to A.T.T.
with cable tame enabled, to frame posterity,
minority reporting may follow Murphy’s law,
with sensor networks nimble to even out each score.

When the Internet's extended, new protocols deployed,
when chips disease have (m)ended, when weak and unemployed
seek in life-long education an answer to their ills
we'll be traced from birth to cremation, from cradle to codicils.

When peer to peer is stifled by music industry,
when copyright laws have rifled favorite Mpeg3,
When public domain's restricted, when 4G is in place,
then what will remain will be guzzled by Carnivore - just in case !

When privacy is threatened through fears of terror tract,
security a catchword twists fiction into fact,
when contacts are by contract logged upon a list,
then what will act as buffer to soothe the iron fist ?

When technologies emergent, which now all end in ‘O’ -
nano and bio convergent, and mobile radio,-
with Radio Frequency ID add to CCTV
what will remain beside me, and you, who once felt free ?

When search engines are perfected, to sort and then distort,
when their power is directed to trace each packet thought,
with 'Quality of Service' secure from 'End to End',
then who'll believe in 'Glocal' ? who will the poor defend ?

When VoIP advances, though very cheap or free,
what will be our chances as criminality
cyber or more may threaten our purse, or, worse, our sleep,
for appetites will whetten to hack, or phish, or peep ?

When DoD and SAIC have trussed what we entrust
when politics Messaic steer IP.6 robust,
when some election voting is biased in advance
what will be left to quoting, what will be left to 'Chance' ?

When sensor networks subtle extend from land to land,
the satellite surveillance may then get out of hand,
pervasive networks nimble may influence each thought
no need to know we’re caught in web which ‘free will’ has sold short.

When point to point relations to ubiquity
are changed throughout the nations the networks then may be
to say the least pervasive as “1984”,
or, even more, invasive – ‘O Brave New World’ in store.

Publicity may praise us, avatars may blame,
Parliament still sitting, - Rump to Commission tame,
where freedom's light dims, falters, to whim of commissar,
who’ll care once fair we’d dare think far upon a falling star ?

Parody Olga KATZIN-MILLER – Freedom is in Peril – itself a Parody Rudyard KIPLING – L’Envoi

L’Envoi

When Earth's last picture is painted and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded, and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it - lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen shall put us to work anew !

And those that were good shall be happy: they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair;
They shall find real saints to draw from - Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting and never be tired at all !

And only the Master shall praise us, and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money, and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working, and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of ‘Things as They Are’ !

Rudyard Kipling