Intro?

So, I’m not really a fan of cliché “first posts”. I really don’t want to do any introduction, anything about myself or what I am particularly interested in. I’m just going to get straight to the point on my thoughts on today and some really inspiring things to me.

A good friend of mine, very socially and politically aware and thoughtful, had recommended me to watch a documentary on Aaron Swartz, an interesting figure of whom I never really heard about before a few days ago. I’m still surprised his existence had became known to me only just know, considering the fact that I am passionate about all the politics and movements and freedom of speech and… and just everything related to that, you know. Most probably do know about his existence (hopefully). If not, in a few words — a very wise young man who had used internet as a way to gain freedom of speech and information for all of us, and is, unfortunately, no longer alive.

I’m not about to tell the whole story of his life and activism, as I am not the most reliable resource for that (use Wikipedia, for example, promote the use of free information on the internet as much as you can! Use it, it is quite a privilege!) . What had particularly touched me is the striving for the possibility of everyone to access knowledge. I have always been keen on getting as much information as possible from many resources and about as many topics as I could possibly find. It is, however, shocking, that the government and many more people “who are high up there” feel like the fact that they might be threatened by some information leakage would go as far as spending money and time to try and hide all of that. Not only that, but many vital for some resources of knowledge are still probably hidden. What might it be? Some secret files from courts? Proof of some events that are still seen as unexplainable? Resources that could count towards creating defeating HIV? Might seem weird and a little bit of conspiracy-theorish-like. However, if the government could prosecute a young man for downloading magazines/books from a university student only accessible source, what other information could be stored from us, deep into the government files? I really want the world to strive for acquiring as much information as possible and getting it in any way they can. People in some countries have to go through a lot of mental and physical pain to even get the basic school knowledge. Why then should we take it for granted and allow something to be hidden from us?

Funnily enough, this story also linked to my another thought of different countries’ governments ability to hide some facts of what is happening in the country and put people off thinking about economic and social problems. This might sound a bit obscure, but I feel like my homeland, Russia, is more politically aware of what the circumstances they are in. Although many people still prefer to choose stable times over the possible overthrowing of the government (even though it is quite impossible in Russia due to systematic control of lower down, poorer and less important sections of society by the government and the rich), people acknowledge and see that their country is suffering. For many, the propaganda on the TV is obvious! However, such countries as the US are slyer. Obviously, quite a lot of stuff is being found out over the course of last few decades, yet I still feel that people are blinded by the capitalistic system and prefer to indulge fully in it — or, many things that would outrage the citizens to great extent are simply masterfully hidden. I am not saying I am supporting the Russian government and the people who prefer to do nothing, nor I am blaming the USA for all the evils in the world, as many do (although come on, it is quite an unpleasant place, or at least made to be so by the powerful 1% of the country), yet I do feel that there is still much more for people to find out about, especially if they throw away all the thoughts of America economically trying to hold people in place. It’s just people need to realize that they are easily controlled by the comforts of the now they are surrounded in the USA and many other parts of the Western world. People should dig deeper, just as Aaron Swartz did. My admiration goes all the way to those refusing to accept their reality and not being blinded by however comfortable they might feel in the society that tries to create an image of a perfect one, fit for the needs of everyone — and which isn’t, especially if we think about the infamous police shootings that came more to light in 2015.

Tired and very, very ill, I must now go to sleep. I shared a bit of an important thought and I am grateful that I can at least spread this to people, even though much of what I have said is obvious to some of you, probably. We are lucky to have the internet (even though not a large part of it) at our hands and share the information to agree on and to pass on to more and more of us. We are powerful — remember and never back down.