SOPA and PIPA: “Let Them Pass”

By SACHA BRENAC

The Bullet has printed articles condemning legislation over censoring the Internet. The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act have been criticized and debated worldwide. However, with a closer analysis of the state of our union, I say: let these bills pass.

They go against our freedom of speech and privacy, both protected by the Constitution. They are major violations to our basic rights, yet I remain: let them pass.

Congress’ approval rating is at a historic low, at nine percent. What are Americans doing about that? I’ll tell you what Europeans are doing about their unpopular governments: they are fighting to replace them. When it comes to the power of the people, money is almost meaningless. When a population rises up physically, there is nothing the state can do to stop change. They can remove people from public space, but they cannot stop an idea. Occupy has lost its momentum and it seems that Americans are returning to the status quo.

The Internet outcry against these anti-free speech bills has been deafening. However, when it comes to reality, the Internet should be used to mobilize people, not as a tool for change itself. This forces me to question if it is fear or laziness that impedes change.

They content themselves to write on a blog about revolution rather than take the streets and actually begin one. Occupy Wall Street has yet to show results in our government, and until November, we might not even know if it was worth the thousands of tents.

So why should these bills pass? Why should our government go on with their restrictions of our freedoms? If they succeed, the people will finally wake up because for once in their lives they will be affected in such a way that they cannot ignore the cry of revolution that resonates in their hearts. They will have no choice but to take to the streets and call for a dismantling of this corrupt decaying system. The people will finally be forced to rise up against the puppets and puppeteers that control our nation.

So let it pass. Let our freedoms be taken away. It will be a catalyst for a revolution that will cleanse this rotting system: the final piece in the puzzle that will show the entire picture to the American people and cause them to wake up from their slumber of consumerist sleep. Make living in this country so unbearable that the people will, as is their right, dismantle, rebuild, and prosper in a nation of their own creation.