Completing the Anglo-American-French Revolution in Intellectual Property
Harry Hillman Chartrand
Somewhere in '1984' Orwell writes: "He who controls the present controls the
past and he who controls the past controls the future!"
So caught up in Maya's web of daily life with its kaleidoscopic images of a
glimmering techno-Future, we do not see the foundation beneath us - the Past
itself - being re-constructed all the time - the ultimate translation of
intellectual property - the cultural mutation of our very minds.
The 1st Emperor of China allegedly said, at the time of the great book
burning of 25 centuries of Chinese written culture: "Before Me, No History!"
Much more recently, one of the most civilized and advanced nations of
Christian, industrialized, Western Europe suffered what Jung called 'a
psychic epidemic' in which destruction of the un-pure Past became a passport
to a glorious Future.
And, of course, the historical source of the Orwellian nightmare - Stalinism
or Big Brotherism - is empty of all the 'un-persons' whose lives and
identities were systematically stripped from the pages of history.
And, as for 'political correctness', textbooks, lectures, pronouns and verbs
are being transgendered and de-racinated before out very eyes in the
post-modern 21st century West of today.
Revisionism is a constant of living human cultures. It is when cultures
stop revising their Past that they have no Future.
Therefore, to progress into a preferred future all of us, as partners in a
common humanity - sharing one planet and one biosphere, must better
appreciate the Past that provides the foundation for our shimmering Net
Visions of the Future.
This means, among other things: Knowing who we are, where we have come from
and where we want to be in the Future.
It also means: We must recognize, respect and tolerate the uniqueness and
differences of each individual and refresh our intellectual property laws to
reflect this fact - the ultimate root of creativity in our species.
If not, then the ultimate intellectual property itself, that which defines
our physical 'personhood' - our DNA - will very soon be up for sale with
nothing but profit between 'us' as an individual and 'us' as just another
biogenetic component of the marketplace.
There is much more involved in fundamental revision of our intellectual
property laws than protecting 'Domain Names' for e-commerce providers and
punishing 'cyber-squatting', to name but two e-merging forms of intellectual
property.
In completing the Anglo-American Revolution for intellectual property, the
foundation established by the Republican Revolutions of England (1640), the
United States (1776) and France (1789), will be preserved for the Future -
the inherent and inalienable right to be an 'individual' human being.
Intellectual property is simply too important to be left to the lawyers!
With best wishes, I remain
Yours truly,
Harry Hillman Chartrand
Cultural Economist & Publisher
Compiler Press
h-cha...@home.com
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