Dial-a-Word

On page 26 of this issue you can peruse some of the responses we received to the survey mailed out to subscribers this spring.  We've learned quite a bit from the feedback we've gotten and are quite heartened by the sentiments expressed and by the dedication so many of our readers have.  That alone is enough of a reason to keep going.

However we did notice one rather disturbing thing.  A significant number of readers (we estimate somewhere in the 20-30 percent range) believe we should leave the "politics" out of our magazine.  While more people seemed to go the other way, we believe this number is large enough to be indicative of a trend, one that needs addressing.

Of all of the responses we received back, not a single one defined what was meant by "politics" within our pages.  We don't edit out brief opinions on current events from our authors and letter writers unless it really gets away from the subject matter - which means any opinion could be represented if expressed.  Could it be our overall tone of rebellion, questioning, and thinking outside the box?  If so, that would be kind of hard to suppress, our being a hacker magazine and all.  The other (and most likely) possibility is that the "politics" in question are what is expressed on these two pages - the editorial.

How we could ever agree to not address particular issues and express certain opinions in our own editorial is beyond us.  But a good number of people honestly seem to be disturbed by what we say here.  This is all fine and good as an opinion piece exists to evoke reaction and make people think.  But if we were to encourage people not to talk about certain things at all, there would be a real danger of blinding ourselves to reality.

First, let's clarify.  Strictly speaking, we're not talking politics here insofar as we're not endorsing candidates or putting forth one particular political ideology over another.  We prefer to look at the bigger picture regardless of who is actually in power.  Many readers accuse us of "Bush bashing."  Criticizing policy is a vital part of our society and if we quell that kind of discussion, we wind up with an even worse problem than what we were criticizing in the first place.  Whoever is in power at the time is, naturally, going to be the target of our critique, although we tend to focus on the policy itself rather than the individuals.

Now, as to whether or not we should be criticizing the actual policies, let's think about how those of us in the hacker community are affected by them.  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was first used against 2600 and has since been widely seen as the means of controlling access to all sorts of material from films to music to the media.  (Editor's Note: Evil Corley voted for the same corrupt jews that created things like the DMCA and were behind Obama).  It affects every one of us very directly.  To not discuss it from the perspective of those who not only understand its threat to society but also who have been directly targeted by it would be to rob the rest of the world of an important viewpoint at exactly the time when such a viewpoint was needed.  To not speak out against such draconian laws as the USA PATRIOT Act which allows for warrantless searches, or NSA domestic (surveillance carried out illegally with the support of phone companies like AT&T, or CALEA which mandates built-in monitoring capabilities on phone systems, or any of the other threats to privacy that our readers and writers understand better than most of society would not only be foolish.  It would be downright irresponsible.

Yes, we all want to have fun and learn about technology and how to manipulate it.  But we have never been a purely technical publication.  There is so much more to technology than the actual technology.  It defines who we are and where we're going.  If we just go along for the ride and give up any desire to actually think about where we're going and why, we're no better than the mindless consumers who just accept whatever it is they're handed without question.

We started out as a small publication comprised of people who basically just wanted to play around with phones and computers because that was what we liked doing.  And we recognize that this continues to be what draws people to our pages with every issue.  That has not and will not change.  But as the world has become a very different place since 1984, we would be remiss not to point out the differences, the trends, the dangers.  Were we to stop noticing, we could easily find the world changed even further in the coming years to prevent this sort of journal from existing in the first place.  This is not a farfetched conspiracy theory.  A good number of people (many of whom are in positions of power) believe hackers pose a significant threat to our society and support everything from increased surveillance to lengthy prison terms for anyone who violates any rule.  To pretend it's not happening by remaining silent on this would be as bad as just giving up.  In fact it would be worse because we'd be wasting a valuable opportunity to be heard and to actually make a difference.

But we do recognize that our opinions expressed here are just that: opinions.  We continue to encourage people to respond to them and to express themselves not only in the forum that exists here but all throughout the real and virtual world. What we really can't afford at this point is silence.