I personally am sick of the government bullshit, the lies, the money passed between politicians and corporations. I’m sick of hearing about stories months after they occur and not being able to do anything about it. Government has grown out of control (particularly in the US, not as much so in Canada) and needs to be held accountable. In this age of technology there has to be a better way to handle all of the crap the government has to do.
Having said that, there is a strong group forming around the likes of Lulzsec and Anonymous who are trying to bring down the government through “hacktivism.” Hacktivism includes shutting down websites, DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, hacking sites to put information up, hacking sites to retrieve information, using alternative methods to get into government files, etc. This is all aimed at destabilizing the power of the government through transparency (shining a light on the BS).
These hackers are all around the world and don’t have a specific leader or organizing party, they operate similar to Al Qaeda in that they are a distributed network. Like a starfish they don’t have a brain which can be killed, chopping off (ie, arresting, shutting down, blocking) one part off will not lead to the demise of the entire organism. Their activities are loosely coordinated through anonymous forums and other methods where users are working towards a common goal, but without explicit tactics or strategy.
The ultimate goal seems to be to shake things up and demonstrate that people are not happy and that gov’ts can’t hide and don’t have 100% control.
This can be extended to the Agorism movement (see Agorist Radio for info) which seems to be driven by the principles of ‘privacy’ and the notion that the gov’t has too much say and control over their daily lives. I personally don’t care about privacy if it helps to eliminate any crime at all or prevent theft or fraud. I have absolutely nothing to hide.
The tone of the agorist movement seems to be exploratory and I’m very interested in the various sides (Bitcoin, free markets, etc.) but the focus is always back to privacy. Circumventing the system to create privacy, untraceable transactions. Who gives a shit about traceability? Isn’t it easier if there is an audit trail? If the system is going to come down then there would be a need for a BTC type currency which would still allow a transaction of value between individuals for goods and services, but it’s already turning into the system we have today (stock markets, etc.).
There also seems to be a bit of a technology superiority vibe meaning that these hackers have a level of knowledge of computers beyond the normal person and even the government so they will use that to express their power that way. I think that this is great for the few, but if they want it to be widely adopted, or enough so that normal citizens can use it they need to make it easier to follow and by the time you know it, the system is basically a mirror of the current one.
And if any real progress is made, the same sharks from the original system will figure out the new system and dominate it. Leaving the original hackers with their meager change and a set of dominant players taking control. These hackers want to level the playing field, but they fail to understand that successful people figure out systems. There might be a lag, but human nature will take over and the original people will regain control.
I keep following this movement closely but fail to see a realistic end game. I would like to see governments tighten their belts and become accountable to their citizens, I would like to see the real story in real-time with a method for us to give feedback. The current system doesn’t work anymore and it’s become too top heavy with useless moronic leeches. I don’t know if we can burn the establishment, but there needs to be some changes.
