Journal 2-4: Internet's Rights

I. In last week's journal I asked the question of what inspired great leaders such as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Upon researching this, I found that Gandhi's inspirations came from how he grew up. Mostly coming from the religions of Jainism and Vaishnavism that Gandhi grew up around. He realized that non-violence movements were always the best choice. He also mentioned that his preceded leaders taught him everything he needed to know. In a famous quote from him, he says, "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could." In this quote he is proving that he did not come up with all of his thoughts on his own, it was others who inspired him.



Also looking into Nelson Mandela's inspirations, I found that many people look to Nelson Mandela as the inspirational figure. He spent 26 years in jail fighting for racial equality, and then he became the first Black African president of South Africa. One of his most remembered and inspiring quotes is "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." He spoke these words in his Long Walk to Freedom speech. This quote shows the mentality of the human race can be changed.







II. In our Ethics class these past two weeks, we've been discussing a lot about the political candidates for the Republican party. We also briefly touched on the SOPA and PIPA situation going on through Congress, and how its been affecting various internet sites. Going off of the Republican party nominees, it seems that its really down to Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, although Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are still in the running. We discussed how it seemed like Romney and Gingrich were having a hissy fit during their debates, and how Santorum and Paul weren't even really involved. Then we learned about what SOPA and PIPA were involved in. SOPA stands for "Stop Online Piracy Act," which means that the government wants to pass a law that makes it illegal to post or use certain copywrited things. And, through this the governement can shut down the website that the use was done on.



I believe that this is ridiculous that the governement wants to pass this law to stop freedom of speech on the internet. I know that the big corporate companies are losing money over it, but in my opinion if they put it out there on the web for people to see and use, then people are going to do whatever they want with it. Also, all these big company names have a ton of money, so I don't think they're losing much sleep over a little copywrite issue. Another thing is that when someone posts a certain song or item as their status on Facebook, then atleast 100 other people are going to see this, and therefore it spreads, which actually brings more money in for the company because people want to buy their product.



A connection I made when hearing about SOPA was maybe the man who started it all, Lamar Smith, a representative from Texas, maybe is just scared about his children hearing or seeing something he doesn't aprove of. It makes me think of the levels of security parents are actually having on their children and the internet. To what extent are they really going too far? I can remember in middle school, some parents would not allow their children to watch a certain movie in school even if they were of age. Also, some parents would put extreme blocks on the internet to keep their child from listening to certain music. In my opinion, this is all going too far because eventually your children are going to be exposed to certain things, and you can't protect them forever. Or else you're kids are going to feel like this:

III. After thinking more about a parent's role in a childs life, I want to research and see if they're are actual parent groups against a teenager's culture today. Are there certain parent groups that rally against teens just being teens?

Sources:


(January 29, 2012). Ask Gandhi. http://kamat.com/mmgandhi/inspiration.htm


(January 29, 2012). The Inspiration of Nelson Mandela. http://www.beliefnet.com/Inspiration/2009/07/Nelson-Mandela.aspx


(January 30, 2012). Stop Online Piracy Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

32_footsteps. (January 30, 2012). Overbearing parent cat is overbearing. http://cheezburger.com/32_footsteps/lolz/View/4134429440