The Irate Spectator

I was in the middle of a "session" with some old friends when one of them mentioned that he was following the Corona impeachment trial but was much more concerned with the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act in the US Congress. In fact, he already had quite a few posts about SOPA but he hasn't posted yet about the impeachment trial on his Facebook.

I quite agree with him, seeing as I have been very passionate about posting about SOPA lately, since I too haven't been giving the Impeachment trial much thought. Now, before I get crucified about caring more about my internet life than about momentous changes in our country, allow me to explain myself.

SOPA, which is a bill sponsored in the US House of Representatives by a (surprise, surprise) Republican Congressman purports to have the protection of intellectual property rights and the prevention of piracy and copyright infringement. Instead, the bill's sweeping provisions sharply curtail websites hosting user content, which by the way is the driving force behind the contemporary internet. Now I have never been a fan of the way corporate interests have used the banner of intellectual property rights to legitimize their drive to build monopolies. This trick is as old as Thomas Edison, who we recognize today as the inventor of the light bulb because he was quick to patent innovations that aren't even his own. In contrast, we have never heard of guys like Hiram Maxim and Nikola Tesla who were able to come up with working light bulbs before Edison did but since they didn't have patents, well, in the eyes of the law they were infringing on Edison's copyrights. If he invented anything, it's this trick. Now we have indigenous people unable to use traditional medicinal herbs because pharmaceutical companies hold the patents. That's copyright for you.

SOPA therefore is not something new. It's a natural outgrowth of the "free" market economy. Driven by profit, our friends in the big corporations are now eyeing the internet and want to make sure that the only stuff that gets posted there are stuff we bought from them. Never mind that it puts an end to an era of global interconnectedness unheard of in human history.

Understandably, SOPA has sparked an intense outcry all over the Web. Wikipedia and Reddit blacked out their sites in protest and sites like Twitter and Facebook released statements condemning the bill. And of course, 9Gag churned out its response from the usual meme based satires to poignant condemnations (e.g. Granpa talking to kids about a now defunct internet).  This confrontation is highly significant. One, you have corporate interests, which have pretty much been given free rein in America (and the world since everybody has to follow America or else) because that's how the free market works, suddenly faced by a massive public backlash and two, that public backlash is coming from people all over the world who are sacred stiff about not being able to post videos on Youtube without the friking FBI checking if it's clean.

The backlash against SOPA is not isolated but part of a trend. The Global Financial Recession demolished an already crumbling idea: that we are at the end of history and the free market economy and liberal democracy have triumphed over its titanic struggle with socialism and communism. Almost twenty years after the Berlin Wall fell, capitalism seems to be driving us not toward progress but to ruins. And all over the world, people are noticing. That's why you have the Occupy movement and massive protests in Europe and Latin America.

What about the Impeachment Trial? Here, we watch how two factions of the same reactionary elite fighting amongst themselves for the prize of being the official reactionary elite who gets to control the government and make sure that elite interests still rule while enjoying the perks of official elite-dom. Which is very boring for me considering that I have been watching this from the moment that I began to comprehend politics. That doesn't mean I have rationally abstained from participation in the impeachment trial, my position is squarely in the Impeach Corona team. But after this impeachment there will be changes but ultimately the system in the Philippines and the world will still be the same so even if all this political drama has become monotonous for us it will still play out in front of us because nobody really bothered to change the script.

But the system is cracking. Years ago it would be unthinkable to blame the system for our economic and political troubles. Such criticisms were dismissed as 'ideological' or  worse 'uneducated' because they dared to question the free market and liberal democracy that have been vindicated by their "victory' in the Cold War. But now the failure of the system lies bare for everyone to see like a huge Error Message on your monitor. SOPA may have already been squelched but the confrontation between those who benefit from the system and those who are exploited by the system will not only continue but will sharpen.

So it begins, the greatest battle of our age.