11 January 2006
Anonymous Annoyance? Not I.
President Bush signed into law a bill that amended the Communications Act of 1934 to include Internet-enabled devices to the list of things one does not annoy, abuse, harass, or threaten with. While phones in the 1930's could only reach one person at a time, people on the Internet have the ability to annoy multitudes, across time and space. While the original intent of the 1934 legislation seems aimed at one-on-one obscenity over the phone, the current state of the law could possibly be interpreted to allow for shutting down annoying speech of another stripe - political.
But, ah! Political speech never annoys, even the opposition! We live in a free society, do we not? And in free societies, we are never annoyed to hear the other views, the critics. We applaud them for coming forward to shake the foundations of our ivory towers, to test our theories, to challenge us and our ideas. Should our ideas pass through the challenges of the critics, we can say they are good and should be kept. Should that not be so, we abandon them and thank the critics for shaking us free from our self-imposed mental shackles.
No, political speech only annoys the autark, the despot, and the dictator. But in such a case, one must annoy those in power, to remind them of what is right and, that by not doing what is right, they shall be consigned to the lower regions of the afterlife as judged by our Creator. Even if they hope to hide behind the shield of atheism, they are still consigned to the hells of history, to have their names spat upon with every remembrance And still, there is a Creator, and there is a judgment for us all. We answer for our crimes to the Judge, and it is the critic who, moved by love for his fellow men, who encourages the despot to save his own soul, that we might all live in harmony.
I therefore cannot annoy when my motive is love and patriotism. I cannot annoy the democrat, for he values the opinion of learned members of the loyal opposition. I cannot annoy the despot, for I am pleading for his soul and for the rights of my fellow citizens.
This law, therefore, does not trouble me, for it is only a despot in democratic clothing who would dare turn the law against me, for such are the most evil human creatures of all, wishing to appear as gods when their works are darkness. We do not have such in America, do we? And if we did, why, all the more reason to speak out and expose the scoundrels for who they are!
No, I cannot annoy. I can only remind those in power what is right, what is good, and what is expected of us as the judgment bar before our Creator.