Net Neutrality Reading

Today I am posting my promised reading on Net Neutrality - the present situation regarding efforts by Congress to hand over control of internet information to a small handful of heavy hitter (and heavy polital contributor) telecom corporations.

Basically, what I see here is very painful, and runs deeper than it appears. First we have a picture of someone pretending that everything is just fine, but he sits in front of an enormous curtain that is hiding more than he is saying. This curtain is held in place by an image of prosperity, nine cups (nine of cups).

The card underneath this one, the truth behind the curtain, is that we are not under the thumb of this authority, we just think we are. We can change this situation, but we don't realize it (eight of swords)

In the past, we did not have an internet. The internet has given us unprecedented access to what we never could have accessed before (High Priestess reversed).

More recently, the internet has continued to pick up speed, literally (The Chariot). Very shortly, we will leap without looking into unknown territory (the Fool). I am inclined to interpret this as bad news because I am personally in favor of the status quo on this issue.

Internet users are happy and naive right now about how good they have it (6 of cups).

Congress and the telecom companies would really just like to skewer the heart of this beast of free, uncensored, information that they can not present or withold as they see fit. If they can impale the heart of this monster, they can defeat it (WOW!) (three of hearts).

Their hope is to nip this thing in the bud. It is also our fear. (ace of wands)

The future? I see choices taken away, (4 of cups reversed), and two miserable figures left out in the cold. I don't want to come to this conclusion, but the cards don't lie. Internet users will lose, democracy will lose, and the holy temple of Big Money will be erected on the site of our internet. (five of pentacles).

Interstingly, I had to try eight or nine times to even post this because I kept getting a message saying "the page was reset while it was loading." It took about 45 minutes. I thought that was an interesting sign. This type of message will not be welcome in the new era.

I have to say, though, that there are signs throghout this reading that we will be defeated only because we have been tricked into fooling ourselves. I think that means that the vast majority of internet users do not understand the internet enough to understand the implications. They also don't understand democracy enough to understand the political significance of something like this. The internet is the last bastion of our democracy that has been untouched by corruption. The playing field is 100% equal. How horrifying that this is now on the chopping block.