PARANOIA VS. SANITY (Winter, 2003-2004)
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Today, nearly 20 years to the day after 2600 printed its first issue, we live
in a very different world. The things we took for granted in 1984 (ironically
enough) simply don't hold true now. We currently live in a society of barriers.
Our leaders have to be kept away from the people because of what we could
potentially do to them. Great barricades must be erected in front of buildings
we once entered freely because they could be considered "targets" of an elusive
and faceless foe. We know little of who they are and how they will strike so
the fear becomes all the stronger. Familiar? Of course, because these
strategies have been used countless times before.

So shouldn't it be easy to see the threat and to take the necessary measures to
keep it from destroying us? Only if we take a couple of steps back and see
where we re going without being enveloped in the fear and paranoia that seem to
have taken over all elements of our society in recent years.

The danger lies in accepting what we re told without question along with the
perception that anyone who stands up to the system is somehow a threat to all
of us. There are many people reading 2600 now who weren't even born when we
started publishing. They have never experienced what so many others have. And
this trend will continue. If nothing changes, the children of tomorrow will
only know a nation of orange alerts, hostility to foreigners, endless warfare
against an unseen enemy, curtailment of civil liberties to anyone considered an
enemy of the state, and fear that never goes away.

Why would anyone want a society like this? Control is like an addiction. Those
in control want desperately to cling to it and to be able to strike out at
those they don't understand or see as some sort of potential threat.

But hackers have had the opportunity to gain a unique perspective. We
understand both the good and the bad in technology. We're not afraid to bend
the rules to learn how something works, despite the increasingly severe
penalties suffered by those who dare. We can apply this knowledge over society
and see the inherent risks involved in the latest ideas put forth by the
Homeland Security people to weed out the "evildoers" among us. The fact that
many of us understand how technology is being used here adds valuable insight.
And it also makes us even more of a threat to those addicted to control.

This clearly won't be a journey for the faint of heart.

As we close the door on our second decade, it's important to note that we have
a great deal of optimism for the future, despite all of the gloom and doom
around us. Why is this? For the simple reason that we believe the right people
are gathering in the right place at the right time. We were happy to learn that
a Norwegian appeals court recently upheld a decision clearing the author of the
DeCSS program of any charges, despite the wishes of the MPAA and the proponents
of the DMCA in this country. In the last couple of years, we've had more people
than ever express genuine interest in the workings of technology and in knowing
all of the ways it can be used against them by malevolent powers, as well as
ways it can be used for something positive. We've seen tremendous attention
paid to this at the HOPE conferences and we expect to see even more this July
as we do it again. The alertness of our readers, listeners to our radio
broadcasts, and attendees of our meetings and conferences has been a tremendous
inspiration to us and to so many others. This is what can change things and
move us all into a less confining world. We ve seen people better their living
conditions and improve the societies they live in once it became evident that
the old way was not the right way. There's no reason to believe that the road
we're going down won't eventually result in that very same realization. And 
we'll get there by keeping our eyes open and finding friends in the least
expected places. That's what's gotten us this far.