Tracing patterns – there’s something.  It’s not good.  In fact, it’s terrible for us, the people.

1. Copyright
   1. Copyright was designed in th 1700′s to protect creators from publishers. (Source)
   2. Copyright is an economic right, automatically vested in creators by governments. (Source)
   3. Copyright is now a weapon used against both creators and consumers.
   4. Rightsholders more often seem to be publishers, not creators.
2. Buttons
   1. The Button Makers Guild was the RIAA of the 1600′s. (Source)
   2. Hollywood owes its location and prominence to its avoidance of paying licence fees to Thomas Edison for making movies. (Source)
   3. CDs, DVDs, whips, buggies, iceboxes, buttons are all outmoded technologies.
   4. We haven’t yet gained the right to make our own modern buttons.
3. Computers
   1. The Internet and the World Wide Web opened up ways of interconnecting, collaborating and organising.
   2. WWW technologies are law-blind.
   3. Xanadu failed.
   4. Rightsholders want Xanadu, not WWW.
4. Censorship
   1. The Internet and WWW allow massive sharing and exchange of information.
   2. People love this.
   3. Rightsholders and Governments fear this.
   4. Governments, rightsholders and some corporations have more power.
5. Technologies
   1. Technology is not neutral.
   2. Many activities are enabled by technology.
   3. Many activities are broken by technology.
   4. Technology can make or break us.
6. Information
   1. Information is a key to learning.
   2. Learning is a key to participation.
   3. Participation is central to our ways of being.
   4. We are Information.
7. News
   1. News is dying.
   2. News is ever more important.
   3. Paper is obsolete.
   4. We are news.
8. Change
   1. Change is necessary for growth.
   2. Technologies change us (see 2, 5 and 6 above)
   3. Some people fear change (see for instance Australian Christian Lobby)
   4. We are change.
9. Democracy
   1. Dissent is necessary for democracy.
   2. Democracy is about the people.
   3. We are the people.
   4. We are being silenced.

There’s something that links all of these together.  Something bigger than our current economic crisis or even our fight against censorship.  There’s something striking at the heart of us.  I fear we have no power, that our democracy has failed us in the face of massive greed and corporatism.

I used to think that the main difference between Australia and the US was that Australia arose from injustice.  We got the convicts, the US got the Puritans.  This gave us an insight into injustice, even though we perpetuated it here.  It underlies our larrikinism, our dissent against propriety.  But we have been invaded.  We have lost our way.  We are not who we thought we were, and those of us who remember are shaking our heads in dismay.  We are being overwhelmed by a new form of puritanism.

This pattern is pervading my thoughts, and yet I cannot quite see it.  What is it that I see?

Edited to add:

• Serfdom is making a comeback.
• People don’t understand numbers.
• More children are abused in their home than by strangers.
• Moral panics!