-John Perry Barlow
"A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace

| riding Saturn's rings | 1st stop |

It's satisfying, in so many different ways, that we see Cyberspace as a world that is inaccessible to governments. As Barlow says, "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world." The only thing to do at this very second is just to take a moment to relish in this power. Our power. No other time are we handed such a privileged standing. Cyberspace "is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions" and through those actions, we are able to bring about change in the physical world.

Take Donald Trump, for example, the 45th president of the United States. The 2020 election year came with no shortage of what many know as 'Trump Rallies.' Whatever connotation that term brings you as a reader, we can't deny that the TikTok sabotage, as I will refer to it, was an ingenious display of Cyberspacian power. As a brief recap, then President Trump's rally in Tulsa Oklahoma resulted in a shockingly low turnout despite having millions of people sign up for tickets (see image below). Turns out that teens on "Alt TikTok" and "K-Pop Twitter" had pushed an interference that garnered tens of thousands of teenagers to reserve tickets for the rally with zero intention of actually going. Take a moment to think about the magnitude and power of this no-show statement—thousands of teens, many of whom are under the voting age, no less, rallied to sabotage one of Trump's rallies through Cyberspace, strategically using the algorithms of their online platforms to their advantage How can Trump even think of beating that? Because, no matter how hard he tries, he "does not know us nor know our world".

In an effort to prolong our inevitably temporary revel of power, I would like to bring up an even more recent event, driven by our power within the Cyberspace—the recent short squeeze on the GameStop stock lead by a reddit thread called Wall Street Bets. Long story short, amateur traders banded together to cause a lot of rich, powerful, actual Wall Street investors to lose a lot of money who are, needless to say, not happy about it. It really depends who's side you're on because if you're one of the amateur traders lurking on and incessantly refreshing r/wallstreetbets, you've succeeded in many ways, so congratulations. But whichever side you may be on is not important in this moment. Like with Trump's TikTok sabotage, the Cyberspacians has done it again—small, average citizens who have much less training and experience in trading than those working on Wall Street were able to completely manipulate the stock market to fit their own agenda.

he addresses people like these big investors by saying to them, "you claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different." So yes, please do take these last few moments to enjoy that power us Cyberspacians have over such powerful figures because no matter how high up the ladder they are, they pretty much have nothing on us when we decide to collectively pool our efforts against them.

But, after all, our time to enjoy this power of Cyberspace is only temporary. While this incredible universe seems like being given a free ticket to a golden opportunity, it camouflages a myriad of deep-seated issues that neither it nor the physical world can really resolve. This, of course, is brought on by the very existence of our precious Cyberspace. Barlow claims that "we are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity" and while this is a beautiful statement, the difficult truth is that the very reason our Cyberspace allows us to completely remove ourselves from our human selves, is also the downfall of the universe. We also have to consider the fact that a place without authority is, after all, a place where anyone can say anything with little to no consequences. Is a complete declaration of independence from the physical world a good thing after all? An unmonitored online world creates a breeding ground for injustice and discrimination. Barlow may claim that "we are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth" but anyone who fully falls into this belief is unfortunately sorely mistaken. It can be easily assumed that a world where events are not as strictly monitored and its citizens so elusive, dangerous and harmful events are bound to happen. It's honestly inevitable.

In a Kantian view, Cyberspace has long entered the realm of the sublime and doesn't seem to be backing down. Actually, it seems to be doing the opposite of that and growing exponentially. It's a place that children of the present generation, Gen Alpha, will grow up in, without the knowledge or any perception whatsoever of an earlier and seemingly primitive time when this universe was smaller.

In the end, our online presence in Cyberspace is fueled by the 'real' version of us—the one we were born as. Our physical selves. No amount of pretending, escaping or twisting can get rid of what individuals may truly hold in their hearts. It's incredible how much Cyberspace and the general internet has grown, how much it has strayed from the physical world while at the same time, still fueling it. Our role now is to figure out how to navigate—to best use—this power we have created and are consequently handing off to the newer generations.

And, again going back to Barlow,

References:

John Perry Barlow, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” Electronic Frontier Foundation (archived), first published 8 February 1996.

Pictures:

Trump Rally: Lorenz, Taylor, et al. “TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html.

r/WallStreetBets: 14, AddedApr. "WallStreetBets". Know Your Meme, 29 Jan. 2021, knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/wallstreetbets

Sincerely,