We will all be hacked

I am guilty of hacking.  That is, of refusing others the right that I myself was privy to.  The right to read something and to decide for themselves the meaning and importance of what they had seen.

 Many years ago, I lived in Tokyo.  On the subways there were many advertisements.  One day I saw a Japanese company using Abraham Lincoln to advertise toothpaste.   Living in the culturally sensitive environment of Japan, where the Emperor is handled with kid gloves, I had developed a similar cultural sensitivity myself.  I promptly took down every subway ad I saw.  The Japanese didn’t stop me.  Than I 

complained to the subway office.

Imagine an American commercial using Hirohito as a toothpaste salesman! 

Today there is a different type of hacking.

The irony of not having freedom of speech within a society, is an ingrown intolerance of the native population for other’s views.   It is an insensitivity to others point of view.   And with it comes a flare of the temper, a rage that lashes out with either words or actions.

When this person has influence, or can some summon others of like mind, the end result is self censorship by 

the writer.   That is the writer is constantly thinking in the back of his mind,

 “I better not write this or I will my site will go down again”.

Either subconscious or not, the “agitator” let’s his pencil go a bit dull, his tongue a little less sharp.  So it is with blogs in China.

I’ve found Chinese blogs to be very useful in terms of keeping the rest of us that live here up to date with the latest unsavory news and gossip.  Sometimes blogs like Chinasmack  have an accompanying Chinese translation, (a fantastic way to better your Chinese, by the way).

Yet I find that most of these blogs tend to copy each other.  That is, they are news blogs and not necessarily original blogs of pure opinion.    However, I cannot dismiss the value of such a “blog”, as they are all very useful sources of information beyond the cities we live in, full of gossip and tidbits that we cannot find anywhere else. 

But maybe they know something we do not?

 Maybe they realize that having an original blog in China is nothing but an invitation for being offensive, to somebody, on something.   And well….the Chinese are not widely acclaimed for their “turn the other cheek” mentality. 

Thus in my view, having an original blog runs the danger of being hacked.   A society raised on one message, ie that foreigners are the reason why China is “down” only heightens the inbred suspicion of the natives towards the outsiders.    To suddenly read a blog meant for laowai consumption（中国朋友们我们还是欢迎你！）, and see that some folks have a take different from your glorious version, is simply too much for some to stomach.  

There is something to be said for a person that is so unhappy with what he has read that he’d go out of his way to forcibly refuse others the same privilege to see and examine for themselves what he himself has just done, and none of it is good.   

I have learned one thing from observing the hacking of a blog; the hackers ability to speak English and presumably read and understand the content doesn’t take away from their level of ignorance.