{"id":1784,"date":"2017-12-27T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T02:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2017-12-27T21:52:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-28T02:52:11","slug":"net-neutrality-government-control-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html","title":{"rendered":"“Net-Neutrality”…Or Government-Control of the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know far less than I should know about the whole issue of so-called \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, and in all modesty, I doubt that I know much less than most others who are weighing in on this topic, and I dare say that I probably know a considerable deal more <\/em>than those\u2014the usual suspects\u2014who are waxing hysteria over President Trump\u2019s repeal of this Obama-imposition.<\/p>\n

Here are a few things that everyone who is interested in forming a thoughtful view on this matter should bear in mind:<\/p>\n

First, the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius advocated on behalf of an idea that has since become enshrined in a doctrine that his followers recognize as \u201cthe Rectification of Names.\u201d\u00a0 To put the point simply, Confucius realized that in order to discern reality for what it is, we must call things for what they are.<\/p>\n

In order to resolve problems, we must affix to them accurate labels.<\/p>\n

Confucian wisdom couldn\u2019t be more pertinent to the issue at hand, for insofar as it is used to refer to the position for which the Obama administration\u2019s has become the popular face, the term \u201cNet Neutrality\u201d is about as inaccurate and misleading a label as any demagogue can conjure.<\/p>\n

An eminently and literally more accurate label is that of \u201cGovernment-Control\u201d<\/em> of the internet.<\/p>\n

Even \u201cNet Socialism<\/em>\u201d is significantly more accurate than so-called \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the conflict over this issue is not, as the media would have us think, a conflict between the champions of Big Telecom, on the one hand, and, on the other, the champions of a free internet to which all have equal access.<\/p>\n

Rather, the conflict is between those who favor a government monopoly over the internet and those who oppose this monopoly.<\/p>\n

Second, the objection that Government-Control of the internet\u2014\u201cNet Neutrality\u201d\u2014is needed in order to prevent the oligopoly of the few Big Telecom companies from running roughshod over consumers while preventing smaller, less resourceful prospective competitors from undermining their cartel, though superficially plausible, is ultimately misplaced.\u00a0 It\u2019s even, arguably, illogical.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, the concern about the abuses of Big Telecom is one with which many of us can sympathize.\u00a0 Yet one needn\u2019t be a fan of the gargantuan internet service providers (ISPs) to recognize that while an oligopoly of sorts truly does exist in this arena, at least there is<\/em> more than one ISP.<\/p>\n

In other words, if it is the potential abuse of power that has the proponents of \u201cNet Neutrality\u2019 up at night worrying, then this is actually all that much more reason for them to oppose <\/em>\u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reason is simple: Given that so-called \u201cNet Neutrality\u201d is actually Net-As-Controlled-By-Government, and since the government is a real monopoly, <\/em>there is much greater potential for abuses of power on the part of the government than any that might exist when the power is dispersed between several actors that are in competition with one another, as it is with the big ISPs.<\/p>\n

Some division of power is better than none.\u00a0 Power is indivisible when it is consolidated within one entity, a central, supreme government.\u00a0 When that power is disseminated among two or more entities, as it is in the case of an oligopoly, then while many of us will lament the restricted range of the competition, this does not change the fact that there at least is<\/em> some competition, some range of choice.<\/p>\n

Such is not the case in any government-directed enterprise.<\/p>\n

So, to paraphrase one of Aristotle\u2019s criticisms of Plato\u2019s theory of Forms, those who favor \u201cNet Neutrality\u201d are like those who, thinking it difficult to count when the number of things falls below 100, propose as a solution that they try instead counting up to 1,000.<\/p>\n

Third, the internet has been around for decades now. It has revolutionized our lives in too many ways to count.\u00a0 Those who have invented and developed the World-Wide Web <\/em>(and his insistence to the contrary aside, Al Gore had nothing to do with it) have placed a bottomless sea of information at the fingertips of anyone and everyone who want to avail themselves of it.<\/p>\n

And they did this in the conspicuous absence<\/em> of \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Barack Obama would have us believe otherwise, private actors did indeed \u201cbuild that,\u201d the internet; neither Obama nor Elizabeth Warren nor any other politician had anything at all to do with it.<\/p>\n

Fourth, those Chicken Littles who are now screaming from the rooftops that the world as we know it is going to come to a grinding halt and only the affluent will be able to afford internet access should have no challenges finding ample examples of such misery from all of those dark days leading up to 2015, the year that the Obama administration imposed \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d After all, a world without the latter is hardly some hypothetical scenario; it\u2019s the only world we had from the time the internet became accessible to the public back in the early to mid-1990s up until two years ago.<\/p>\n

That there are no examples of these doomsday scenarios and that, as was already noted, the lives of billions of human beings have been exponentially enriched by the internet in a pre-\u201cNet Neutrality\u201d era are facts that militate powerfully against the alarmism now on display.<\/p>\n

In fact, the whole situation calls to mind a quip that Ronald Reagan once made regarding Keynesians: They are people, the Gipper said, who, upon seeing an idea work in practice, <\/em>will wonder whether it will work in theory. <\/em><\/p>\n

We can say the same thing about the champions of \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know far less than I should know about the whole issue of so-called \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d That being said, and in all modesty, I doubt that I know much less than most others who are weighing in on this topic, and I dare say that I probably know a considerable deal more than those\u2014the usual…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Net-Neutrality"...Or Government-Control of the Internet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Net-Neutrality"...Or Government-Control of the Internet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I know far less than I should know about the whole issue of so-called \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d That being said, and in all modesty, I doubt that I know much less than most others who are weighing in on this topic, and I dare say that I probably know a considerable deal more than those\u2014the usual…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-28T02:52:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-28T02:52:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Net-Neutrality\"...Or Government-Control of the Internet","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Net-Neutrality\"...Or Government-Control of the Internet","og_description":"I know far less than I should know about the whole issue of so-called \u201cNet Neutrality.\u201d That being said, and in all modesty, I doubt that I know much less than most others who are weighing in on this topic, and I dare say that I probably know a considerable deal more than those\u2014the usual…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2017-12-28T02:52:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-28T02:52:11+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html","name":"\"Net-Neutrality\"...Or Government-Control of the Internet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-28T02:52:10+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-28T02:52:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2017\/12\/net-neutrality-government-control-internet.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Net-Neutrality”…Or Government-Control of the Internet"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/1785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}