Reports from India suggest the terrorists responsible for three days of innocent bloodshed used Google Maps in planning their attacks. Some have suggested that allowing this sort of information to be freely available is asking for trouble.
Frankly, that’s pure idiocy. That’s like saying we should vet anyone buying a car. Or pants.
Explosives should be controlled. Guns should be controlled. Toxins should be controlled.
Aerial maps are public domain.
If you don’t want Google to see something, cover it with a fucking tarp.
Controlling information is a very slippery slope. The small-minded will always play into the hands of special interests who seek to profit from their fear. I allow that certain things should be kept from the general public. I feel very strongly that the number of those things is pretty small.
Explaining that is tricky. On the one hand, I think the American Constitution has been badly misinterpreted in guaranteeing the individual freedom to bear arms. To me the document says that the militia has the right to bear arms. Nobody else. A militia is an officially sanctioned armed civilian reserve, not any old Johnny Texas or Trigger Malone. There has been a lot of debate on the subject, but the intent of the Second Amendment is grounded in centuries of law, all of which point toward a trained and armed militia. The reason I bring it up is that because of this misinterpretation we have millions of self-entitled gun-toting idiots who watch too much TV and think that they’re right and everyone else should respec’. Never mind that their own beliefs are tragically ignorant. And because we have millions of loose cannons running around making themselves feel important by oppressing the rest of us, it makes sense to me that everyone should have a gun. If you can’t stem the tide, get in the boat and ride.
The theory is that thugs will be less likely to pull a gat if there’s a very good chance you are carrying a similar gat. The downside is that then we have an entire population of people too stupid to run.
Taking the plot forward, trying to control something already beyond control is a colossal waste of effort. You’re better off trying to re-establish equilibium:
If everyone is equal, no one can get the upper hand.
To look at futility another way, the resources spent trying to control the information available from Google Maps would be far far better spent in other ways. The advantages of having the information freely available outweigh the disadvantages by so much as to make the whole debate really really dumb.
If you educate everyone, then no one is dumb. Eliminate ignorance, and you have understanding. Using a computer to access specific information is a nice gateway to using it for more generalized information. Maybe even global. As in: a global perspective.
Today’s most popular kind of terrorism is born from two brands of ignorance — the oppressed and the oppressors. The Man exploits the Little Guy, and the little guy fights back dirty. Educate both sides with a little Principle of Fair Play, a little Big Picture, and the issue goes away. I’m not saying this will wrap up Israel vs Palestine, because that’s an ugly one involving religion, and there doesn’t seem to be anything Fair or Reasonable about Religion. There should be, but there isn’t. Education really could cover it, with comprehensive agreements to share the holy ground and so forth, but we’re talking about thousands of years of entrenched enmity. That might take more than a couple night classes at the community college.
I feel like I’ve tried to take this post in too many directions. Perhaps dulling the point.
The point: anything that encourages education has to be a good thing. Spreading knowledge around as widely as possible means the bar is raised. There is less ignorance. It’s so simple to me– if everyone has the same opportunities, then no one is oppressed. If everyone is educated, then no one is ignorant.
If no one is ignorant, then everyone understands one another. Without ignorance, there is no racism, no oppression, no exploitation. We can stop being our own worst enemies and get on with humanity’s journey outward. Together. Hell, then it’s just us versus the corporations. And we could do that if they lost their ability to play off our fears.
I don’t think equating access to maps with an end to ignorance and the triumph of humanity is such a great leap. Maybe optimistic, but that what I do.
