I am at my dead end part time job doing security work and finding myself doing some heavy thinking about government. I’m disturbed at the amounts of money and resources being thrown at surveillance of the internet. The most recent age verification angle is particularly disturbing. I am angry that a contingent of the Linux community is willfully bending to these laws instead of fighting them. I get why Red Hat and Fedora capitulate but I don’t agree with it. I hope other distros won’t kowtow to government surveillance.
I am personally convinced that it is time to do an open subversion of government surveillance attempts. I know I risk being branded as a domestic terrorist as a result of my views but I don’t necessarily care. It’s all about bumping up against the legality line without crossing over into criminality. We have a right to be secure digitally too. It’s one reason why I want to create a secure network. I just don’t know how to appropriately police it so as to avoid crossing into criminality.
I’ve thought about creating a secure network in the past but it’s only been thoughts. I know that I would like to legally thwart government surveillance. What if a closed-loop virtual private network could be created where all communication stays within the confines of the network? Everything would have to be encrypted and no logs kept. What if I simply made it free? Could I bypass the laws designed to assist the government in its surveillance?
I mean yes it could be abused as any tool or system can but I like to err on the side of freedom. The freedom to communicate without being spied on is fundamental. Government should live in fear of, and serve, its citizens; not the other way around. I keep going back to Benjamin Franklin’s very prescient statement, “Those that would sacrifice liberty for security gain none and deserve neither.”
I want to live in a world where I can have a discussion with a friend over long distances without having to be concerned with having my conversations recorded or analyzed. I want to be free to post my opinions and thoughts without being placed on a watch list somewhere. Well, to be honest, I am probably on a watch list because I am not afraid of making my opinions known. Therefore certain parties might be concerned that I would somehow diminish their power.
I already made the conscious choice to do everything on open source software and operating systems. I do not use anything proprietary or non-free. This alone means I run against the grain of society. Doesn’t the old adage, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” apply very well to the US?
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