I was in a building talking by cell phone, but my reception was poor. The fellow on the other end of the call said, “Walk toward a window.” Go to where cell phone waves move freely through the air.
The same goes for free speech. On the web, Dave Winer urges us to do the equivalent of walking toward a window. Walk out of the silo, go to where free speech moves freely through the air. He writes:
One of the things we can do to preserve freedom is to resume using the open internet to communicate instead of the silos of Zuck and Musk et al. When you use the web instead of a silo you are helping build community outside, where free speech is the default. The more of us who communicate outside, the more people will be attracted. Your participation helps draw people out, where independent developers can create new tools for you without waiting for permission of big companies who own the network you're using. It's like voting. The more people do it, the stronger we all are.
The principle here is far-reaching, not just for the web —
- Behave as though a narrow space designed by others for their purposes, not yours, is good enough for you, and you signal that to the wider group: “This narrow space is good enough for you, too!”
- Behave as though you should be free, that you are free to move freely, speak freely in a space that suits you, and you signal to the wider group that they deserve the same opportunities. “We deserve an open space for creativity, freedom, and partnership, and we shall have it. Maybe we already do.”
When we see a group of people living in creativity, freedom, and partnership over there, we tend to say, “Let’s go over and see if we can join in.” We say, “We’ll have what they’re having!”
When, asserting our principles, we put down a marker asserting our own individual freedom, that marker and those principles create a little better chance for the other person’s freedom too.
Vaclav Havel wrote about living in truth. Think carefully about what you really value, and live as free as you can in the powerful truth of it. Doing so will inspire your friends and neighbors toward their own freedom and it will drive the power-hungry in their towers a little bit crazy. This was part of what he called the power of the powerless.