Barlow's Fourth of July message

Vinay sez, "John Perry Barlow is in Iceland for the Icelandic Foundation for Digital Freedoms' conference. We shot this Fourth of July talk with him at Thingvellir, the ancient site of Iceland's historic parliamentary republic, B. 930 AD, D. about 3 centuries later." Link (Thanks, Vinay!)

[#1 posted by Daemon , July 4, 2008 11:06 PM]

This was filmed in the 1200s? Not bad, given the technological limits of the time.

[#2 posted by Tubman , July 5, 2008 1:25 AM]

@#1, Daemon: That's nothing. If the title's to be believed, they managed to move a river from Scotland to Iceland too.

[#3 posted by ZombiePirate , July 5, 2008 2:14 AM]

The day before must have been the Firth. Given the sheer number of midges that cameo in that video, it looks likely that they did move a river from Scotland to Iceland ;)

[#4 posted by Lewis Haidt , July 5, 2008 2:54 AM]

I respect what Barlow created; just as I hold great respect for Cory and the work you've done.

But at certain points, we need a little more critical perspective, especially towards our friends.

Barlow's ideological philosphy is whack. Not all of us can fly around the world, like freedom fighters, inspiring our Lord of the Rings-loser-good-forces army who stay home and prob. watch too much porn online r r 2 afraid to approach women overall.

Then there's Barlow and his girlies. But my point is that when Barlow spoke in Cory's seminar, I asked a question about whether the EFFs of the world engage the Latino, growing massive pro-immigration marches, which in their largest sense are the symbol of a "open-source" (yes, URRR, OPEN BORDERS Barlow) philosophy, and he said "no," which was the literal answer and also a symbolic representation of the Copyleft insular, indie-media, punk, socialist some of whom confuse the anti-zionist w/ anti-semetic, think we can call moderators Nazis bec. they hurt our feelings or kick us off some damm forum or r imperfect.

This act is getting old. I hope there begins to be a little more critical perspective at BoingBoing and also that the moderators figure out a way to "shame" those who x linguistic lines that r intolerable and shameful in that crazy, not-so-easy-represent real world.

[#5 posted by Patchouli Pete , July 5, 2008 4:52 AM]

I find it a bit odd that he decries pornography, when that is surely one of the great democratic freedoms that he seeks to enhance. I suppose he may be referring to some kinds of porn that are uncontroversially extreme, or simply expressing a personal dislike of what people choose to do in the privacy of their own homes. Either way, I admire Barlow as the highest priest of freedom, so find it doubly odd that he seems to disapprove of the very chaos about the net that he professes to be its stength.

Ho hum.

[#6 posted by hexayurt , July 5, 2008 5:51 AM]

The Icelandic Digital Freedoms Conference site has a few more details on the event.

There should be TED-style video of the whole thing up soon. A good bit of it will be in Icelandic, however.

We've got a chat channel open here if you'd like get a few highlights off the liveblog.

[#7 posted by Keeper of the Lantern , July 5, 2008 1:23 PM]

Yeah, why bitch about Cyber Crime, Spam and porno when you're talking about freedom? Freedom is meaningless unless you're free to do something that someone else doesn't like. And right now, lots of people are doing that.

In fact, had we in 1993, for instance, imagined that pretty much the whole world was going to be on the internet a few years later, would we have imagined anything different? Would we believe that, just because people have electronic access that they would change their behavior? Or even more, that they would not explore limits they could never explore in non-digital life?

No, there's nothing to be dissappointed about, not if you knew enough about human nature. Even more so, one could argue that all of this was a necessary exploration of what freedom means.

[#8 posted by noen , July 5, 2008 5:15 PM]

Freedom is not the right to do anything you want.

[#9 posted by hassan-i-sabbah , July 5, 2008 7:43 PM]

Freedoms just another word for nothing left too lose...

[#10 posted by Avram , July 5, 2008 9:14 PM]

What is it, then, Noen?

[#11 posted by mdhatter , July 6, 2008 10:50 AM]

I'll take 'freedom to' over 'freedom from' any day of the week.

[#12 posted by zuzu , July 6, 2008 11:17 AM]

I'll take 'freedom to' over 'freedom from' any day of the week.

Well said.

[#13 posted by d0ti5 , July 6, 2008 3:19 PM]

You say you would rather have freedom to rather than freedom from before you think of what you are saying. Freedom is not the right to do anything you want, rather it implies social responsibility and liberty from oppression.

Would you rather have freedom to walk around naked or freedom from being locked away for five years without representation for a crime not disclosed to you? I will take habeas corpus, myself, thanks. And, if you want the freedom to chop babies into a nice patte, well, me and my kind will probably hang you.

Personally, I think that laws are for apes, and true humans don't need them. A true human is aware of their surroundings, of their place in them and of their responsibility to them. It is the philosophy of ubuntu, that "I am because we are"

It is no different in cyberspace than in your neighborhood. If you are the one on the block with waist-high weeds, two cars on blocks, mixing up meth in the basement, I am sorry, but I want you out of the neighborhood. And, if you are the one who has no regard for the rights of others, and just want to send me crap e-mails about cheap Viagra, how you have $30 million dollars and I can help you for a low, low price, or how you have a new web cam just for your "friends", well, I will block you.

Making bombs or making viruses are not a lot different. People aren't doing it for the good of humanity, or for the planet, or to save the unborn baby whales. They are doing it because they are jerks, morons, or malicious psychotics with delusions of grandure. Oh, well - we can not legislate a sense of morality in the public.

The world could be a better place, but it won't happen until we have both a sense of reciprocity and empathy, until we realize environmental limitations, until we realize that this is not a zero-sum game. Either we all win, or we all lose, here.

[#14 posted by Oren Beck , July 6, 2008 3:50 PM]

Barlow is one of those people who has been there and done that with no need to show the shirts as proof.
LISTEN to the man and grasp that what he says is from life experiences. I will listen to folks who have done things a bit more carefully than those who never even tried.

You have in that short clip a glimpse of what we used to call leadership vision.

[#15 posted by AirPillo , July 6, 2008 10:13 PM]

@ #10:

I'm afraid I can't properly attribute the quote, but the best metaphorical definition of the limits of freedom is this little gem:
"your right to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose"

Freedom is the right to do anything that doesn't impede the freedom of another.

There is currently no country in the world which offers that standard of freedom, by the way. All of them also criminalize various victimless actions.