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      "body": "Congratulations @alexiwotan! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@alexiwotan/birthday3.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 3 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@alexiwotan) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=alexiwotan)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "The internet began as a series of interconnected computer networks which eventually converged and began using the same packet switching protocols. Through the years, technology has advanced, from dialing into an ISP over the phone lines, to cable providers opening their subscribers to the World Wide Web, but one this has remained the same: someone else is controlling the gateway to a world of information. Here they can censor, they can throttle, and they can block you completely. It seems almost Orwellian.\n\nThis is where the net-neutrality proponents seems to have it right. Companies are deciding what content we can access, so perhaps forcing companies to respect the information and make no decisions about the content, allowing unrestricted access to this digital world, could be beneficial. But there seems to be one problem: Who will overlook this? And many cry out to governments, but haven’t States been the biggest proponents of censorship and data collection? Are they not the ones that give these ISPs monopolies over regions so they themselves may practice these digital sins themselves? It seems that the only way we can hope for true digital freedom is competition to drive out these state supported monopolies, but the current state of affairs means that there will be no way for such a thing to happen. The only way is to rebuild the network from the ground up. But how could we go about doing this? The answer is Meshnets.\n\nFirst, what are Meshnets? Meshnets are decentralized ad-hoc networks, which, rather than connecting a computers to one another over the centralized infrastructure of an ISP, connections are made computer-to-computer-to-computer until the desired server is reached. It relies on users of the network to transmit the packets, rather than the ISP. And although this offers numerous advantages, it does have a few flaws.\n\nSome technology-adept people could listen in on network, spread malware, and view some horrendous content, all via other people’s computers. This is all true, but, all of this happens on the modern internet as well. Not to mention, most web traffic these days is encrypted, and with some user-driven security, many of these concerns won't even be concerns. Likewise, community policing of these networks could more easily remove that unscrupulous content, much more efficiently than government surveillance, which more often than not targets innocent people as well. But another way to ensure security is the establishment of dedicated nodes. In most Meshnets, every user’s computer acts as a node, and runs traffic through it, and user’s computers in this theoretical Meshnet could do this too, however, if special computers, running a GNU/Linux distribution specially designed to work as Meshnet nodes were to be set up, most of these security concerns could be eliminated completely. Think of a small computer enabled with Meshnet software, broadcasting the wireless signal, which not only connected them to other nodes, but with the user’s computers.\n\nThis Meshnet means that no one person could have control over it, but rather the community that sponsors it. If one node goes down, there are numerous others to take its place, meaning censorship and disasters couldn’t break the network. It can provide free/cheap network access to low income families, students, schools, etc. They’re fast, broad, and would be cheap and easy (at least in theory) to set up. Government and Corporate control be damned.\n\nHowever, Meshnets are not the most popular kind of network out there, yet. A lot of services that are used by many on the modern Internet are not directly available to Meshnets (and vice versa). A Meshnet separate from the Internet can’t get on Facebook unless Facebook servers were linked to that specific Meshnet, and not to mention that there are numerous types of Meshnet software, one often not being able to be linked to the other without some kind of bridge. And that’s what I’m suggesting, a series of bridges, not only hooked up to multiple different Meshnets (at least until they can be standardized), but to the wider internet itself, until that is eclipsed. With multiple bridges connecting the Meshnet to the wider Internet, services on both can become available to one another, connections can be easily hidden from surveillance (no one could be sure where in the Meshnet they came from), and stress on modems and the sort can be reduced. The outside internet connections are only possible if some participants in the Meshnet still pay those profiteering gluttons that provide a service that could be dirt cheap if it wasn’t for capitalistic monopolies, but I assume this is a service at least some people would still want to pay for.\n\nGo start a Meshnet in your neighborhood, apartment complex, place of work, etc. Buy some Raspberry Pis, some wireless antennas, install some Meshnet software, and get rolling for change!",
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      "body": "Welcome to Steemit! If you would like to see statistics of any post on Steemit, you can use Steemd.com. I have made a bookmark for your convenience in accessing Steemd. https://steemit.com/steemd/@craigwilliamz/steemd-statistics-bookmark-for-easy-access-to-steemd",
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      "title": "A lot of hot air... er, steem.",
      "body": "Of course this is a pseudonym, but whats behind the name is important.  I'm a Mutualist (Libertarian Market Socialist), a Musician (Punk Rock and Heavy Metal), a Computer Science student (Linux tho), and I often have rants that can't be given in the 1 and a half minute punk songs I usually play. I've ran a few blogs, but besides the few people I sent links to, no one really read the posts. Facebook was great for that though, until friends with different political view began clashing on my posts, and I'd like to keep in contact with people this close to the holidays.\n\nAnyways, I found Steemit via various Facebook groups I was a part of, but didn't pay much mind until I saw an Adam Kokesh video on it, and I had to check it out. Instantly, I was intrigued, and had to sign up. So here I am. There will be politics, there will me music, and no real names will be given. Enjoy, because I will.",
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      "title": "Bitcoin, Banking, and Debt",
      "body": "Central Banking is built on a system of perpetual debt, and is the bane of all of the working class, which is exploited for the (often temporary) gain of the rich. \n\nImagine this scenario: if a central bank had $100, and loaned out $25 to 4 banks each, but with $2 added to each loan as interests, there is still only $100 in circulation, but $110 in debt. Each bank would have to repay $22 to the cental bank, and there is simply not enough currency in circulation for that to happen.\n\nIn order to make up the interest, the banks loan out smaller loans of $5 to 5 individuals, but with an added $1 interest, meaning each person will have to pay back $6. This would give each bank $30, enough to pay back the $22 to the central bank, while reaping an $8 profit for themselves. But $6 times 5 people, times 4 banks is $120, and there is simply not enough currency in circulation to eliminate all the debt. Eventually more is loaned out by the central bank so that some people may pay their loans off, but simultaneously putting more people further in debt, while also decreasing the value of the money itself (which means bigger loans, higher interest, more debt, etc).\n\nThere are some ways to alleviate the enormous debt that is created via central banking, two of the most prominent are a return to some kind of backed currency, and a system of mutual banking. A backed currency could reduce the inflation that drives the debt brought on by fiat currency, but without equal access to the materials themselves (like gold), paper money that represents it would continue to get loaned out, still pushing an, of course slowed, cycle of debt. Mutual banks as proposed by Proudhon and other Mutualist thinkers have a similar problem, regardless if the currency is fiat, backed, or based on some kind of labour-voucher system. Although these proposed mutual banks would loan out money at (much) lower interest rates, the interest itself is the problem. No matter if the total cost of interest is a penny, the total debt would still be greater than then the amount of currency in circulation, and this is as big of a theft as inflation itself.\n\nAnd this is the blessing of Bitcoin and other similar blockchain based crypto-currencies. These currencies are not controlled by a bank, so introduction of money into circulation is not done by loaning it out, but rather by “miners” solving cryptographic problems, and being rewarded with the money. The miners then spend the money they have been rewarded with, putting it directly into circulation with no interest, and therefore no debt, being attached to it. As for inflation, there is already a set rate of introduction of new coins, rather than some random rate introduced by central banks, so value can be adjusted as soon as the project itself is launched. \n\nThis doesn’t mean that loans wouldn’t ever be used even if bitcoin or similar currencies became the norm, because sometimes they are an important aspect of any money-based economy (such as with College Tuition, Housing Loans, etc) , but rather that introduction/creation of the money wouldn’t establish a system of perpetual debt, keeping the poor in poverty. Bitcoin would allow equality of opportunity, and a more egalitarian economy.",
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      "body": "**This Essay was originally written in 2014, and has been posted on two (now defunct) blogs of mine**\n\nSurveillance has become commonplace, from the prying lenses of CCTV cameras mounted on every wall, to the forced GPS abilities on our self-inflicted addictions called smart phones. This social norm of surveillance that the United States, and the rest of the western world, participates in would have been unthinkable of just a few decades ago, with any government that did it being considered among the ranks of Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, or Perón’s Argentina. One of the many thinkers to oppose this kind of totalitarianism was Eric Blair, who wrote numerous literary works under his pseudonym George Orwell, especially his landmark novel 1984. But this warning that was published in 1948 was unheeded, and when you compare 2014 with this dystopian world you begin to see that Orwell was right, he was just 30 years late.\n\nThe telescreens were mounted on nearly every wall of every room throughout Oceania, and through them “it was… conceivable that [the State] watched everybody all the time” (Orwell 3). This constant surveillance had become a part of the daily life of the citizens of this nation united under IncSoc (Orwell 3), and with it they acted as if every minute of their lives they were watched. Winston Smith, the main character of Orwell’s famous work, lives in this state of legal paranoia that has been induced by the Party, the elite group that rules over Oceania, who rose to power in some Soviet-style Bolshevistic revolution. The doctrine of this party seems to suggest that this surveillance state was established to safeguard the revolution, the state, and the people themselves, against the enemies, such as the “capitalists…. [who] wore top hats” (Orwell 89-90), while the members of the Inner Party claim it just as a way to have power for powers sake. This seems like a paradox, but when you examine the rest of the party’s doctrine, such as “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 16), this two-faced lie seems like nothing out of the ordinary.\n\nWhen we understand the true motives of the Party’s surveillance state in 1984, we realize that even in our reality “we cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence” (Hughes). This was the realization of the Cypherpunks on the dawn of the public Internet, as well as Winston upon the dawn of his intellectual awakening. In the world of 1984 technology had been co-opted by the government since the rise of the Party to power as a method of safeguarding the revolution, but in our world it wasn’t until around the early 2000s, when the Cold War had ended, that the nations of the western world led by the United States were presented a single faceless enemy that had attacked, and gave them a reason for similar continuing mass control over the technology (as well as many other things) all in the name of national security. The nations of the west have been stuck in this perpetual war in the same region of the world with this first faceless enemy, or perhaps some nation that supports them; likewise, Oceania and all of its neighbouring nations are in a similar state of perpetual war “which is also useful for the keeping up public morale” (Orwell 207), and therefore obedience and acceptance of the current police state that they live under. This state of fear induced, near apathy sounds all too familiar.\n\nWe have given too many of our freedoms to agencies with three letter acronyms in the name of security, and the those we don’t actively give up to these agencies, are taken from us without our consent. At airports it’s the TSA, and online it’s the NSA, that controls our movements and keep track of where we go. In the physical world, people challenge the TSA through humorously “[complying] to TSA security protocol” (Kokesh) causing the whole process to become bogged up and slow down, while people like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden call out our digital despots in speeches and leaked documents, for which they are put in prison or forced to leave the country. But these activists only shared information with the public, but are being charged with espionage, which legally means sharing information with the enemy. Using governmental jargon, this means “that the US Government views [its citizens] as the enemy” (Paul), an enemy that they’re afraid of, and enemy that they need to control. But with the apathy and fear present in both Oceania and modern America very few groups in either places within will realize that, to the government, the populace, not some foreigner half a world away is the enemy .\n\nThe Party uses the telescreens to watch the people, and with their presence in nearly every room, this is not hard, but in the modern world it seems impossible for the government to do something like this, but when you read this on a laptop, smart-phone, tablet, or other kind of modern computer, look for a microphone. This seems too much like fiction (such as 1984) but in 2014 it is becoming a reality. Telecommunications providers will provide you with internet assess, but will also provide your information to the NSA. Similarly search engines like Google collect “browser and computer info, which can often uniquely identify you” (Duck Duck Go), and provide it to the same organizations as your ISP. And where monitoring your connections isn’t enough, some special NSA units “can intercept computer equipment… and install tracking hardware or software before [it]… reaches the buyers” (Fingas). This mass surveillance seems to be more and more like the telescreen surveillance of the Party of Oceania. The people who reveal this tracking as well as many other abuses, such as the previously stated whistle-blowers, have been chastised by the government and at points hunted down and imprisoned. Although the Brotherhood in 1984 may be a fiction, this elite group of tech-savvy whistle-blowers could just be a modern reflection of the group who may-or-may-not fight against the Party. And similarly, perhaps the central figure in these rebel organizations, Goldstein in the Brotherhood of 1984, could be incarnated in Julian Assange, the head of Wikileaks, who protects and supports various whistle blowers, and likewise is hunted along with them. Assange may not have been a revolutionary fighting alongside George Bush and Barrack Obama in establishing this massive police state only to rebel when the outcome was not pleasing, but he is fighting against them just as hard.\n\nThe mass surveillance of the modern day has been met with mixed reactions, with some people doing everything they can to avoid it (using complex encryption, proxies, open source software, etc) while the apathetic people who allowed this state to arise (whom also vastly outnumber the paranoid, modern day, reincarnation of the Cypherpunks) just take it as a normal day to day occurrence. In the world of 1984, those of the first group would be sent to the Ministry of Peace, but in our modern civilized time they are just “detained at airports and [have their] electronic equipment seized” (“Jacob Appelbaum”). When asked about the scale of this program of governmental surveillance, D.L., a sophomore at [Location Redacted] said that what “the U.S. Government is doing is too intrusive” (L.). If we lived in Oceania, D. would have become an unperson, someone removed from history, due to his opinion. Who knows, perhaps people like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange will be among the unpeople in the real world, such as those erased from history under the rule of Stalin (and perhaps US presidents as well).\n\nSome people though, think that the surveillance is a necessary part of life, either through support out of fear, or total apathy. J.J., another student at [Location Redacted] was asked about his opinion of governmental surveillance and replied with “Personally, if they want to see what kind of porn I’m watching, I don’t care, go for it, I’m not doing anything wrong” (J.). This kind of apathy is dangerous though, since as seen in 1984, and increasingly in the modern world, apathy leads to abuse of power, and abuse of the people and their freedoms. Our apathy may lead to the creation of the police state in our world, but in the world of Oceania it just solidifies the government’s hold on the people. With apathy, government becomes more powerful, and even more dangerous.\n\nOrwell wrote 1984 as a warning, a warning to the apathetic and to those who seek security over liberty, not as an instruction manual for power-hungry states disguised as protectors of freedom. When we sacrifice some freedom to the state, we might as well give it all up because generation after generation they will take more and more away, until our descendants live without their own lives. If we don’t fight back now, mass surveillance of this scale will become a vague and romantic memory of the past, and we will read 1984 as if it is the diary of a modern day traitor. Humanity must understand that we are free, and that none of our freedoms must be sacrificed in the name of security, or peace, or good will, or anything. Freedom is its own goal, Freedom is to know what two plus two is.\n\n\n\nWorks Cited\n\n    Duck Duck Go. “Google Tracks You. We Don’t. An Illustrated Guide.” Google Tracks You. We Don’t. An Illustrated Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. http://donttrack.us/.\n\n    Fingas, Jon. “Engadget.” Engadget. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/29/nsa-can-reportedly-bug-computer-equipment-before-it-sees-buyers/.\n\n\n    Hughes, Eric. “A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto.” A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto. Activism.net, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html.\n\n    “Jacob Appelbaum.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Appelbaum.\n\n    J., J. “Interview with J.J..” Interview by [Author]. N.d.\n\n    Kokesh, Adam. “Arrested in My Underwear at a TSA Checkpoint.” YouTube. YouTube, 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-z95aGUAJI.\n\n    L., D. “Interview with D.L..” Interview by [Author]. N.d.\n\n    Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.\n\n    Paul, Ron. “Live by Quotes.” Live by Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. http://livebyquotes.com/2013/my-understanding-is-that-espionage-means-giving-secret-or-classified-information-to-the-enemy-since-snowden-shared-information-with-the-american-people-his-indictment-for-espionage-could-revea/.\n\n\nInterview with D.L.*:\n\n[Author]: Name, Age, Grade?\n\nD.L.: D.L., 16, sophomore.: So have you heard about the NSA Surveillance\n\nD: Like, This Day and Age?\n\nA: Yes.\n\nD: Yes, I Have.\n\nA: So what’s your opinion on it?\n\nD: I feel like a small amount is necessary to keep the peace, but the amount that the US Government is doing is too intrusive, and that security has turned into paranoia. I worry that in the next few years it will turn into something too intrusive.\n\n\nInterview with J.J.*:\n\n[Author]: So what’s your opinion on the whole NSA Surveillance thing?\n\nJ.J.: Personally, if they want to see what kind of porn I’m watching, I don’t care, go for it, I’m not doing anything wrong.\n\n\n*Names Redacted, initials only.",
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