About a month ago I wrote a blog entry about someone I knew being harassed online. She is a great person and the harassment was totally uncalled for. The entry was mostly ignored until recently on the other site, but in retrospect I think I should write something here as well.

I am wondering if we all know how fragile this thing we call the internet is? Do we realize that if it is abused the government will come in and regulate it with or without or blessing? Are were ready to give up this freedom of thought and expression because a few people have abused it?

Online harassment and stalking is becoming a major issue in the media these days. MSNBC does specials about stalkers that are looking for under aged kids to molest. Every week we are hearing more and more about the dangers of being online. We hear myspace.com is fertile ground of cyber crimes. We hear people are in more and more danger by interacting over the internet. This is not a good trend.

It will not take much more of this bad press for the government to step in and really clamp down on how the internet is used. They will ban sites like AFF and myspace.com, they will restrict internet streaming for private use, they will tax emails (because now they can) and they will take away liberal and opinioned websites at the blink of an eye. I have no doubt even this site would be one that is banned because I write about my “subversive” opinions all the time.

So, you say that they couldn’t do it? That they do not have the technology to do it and this is just pie in the shy? Well, I got news for you, they can do it and they do have the technology to do it. I would bet they already have a list of internet sites ready to go for when the public outcry becomes too large. I would bet the blocking software is already written. I would bet that the servers are already to go. I would bet they have protocols in place for ICANN and Network Solutions (and all the other registrars) to be implemented with the flip of a switch or click of a mouse.

You think this is paranoia? You think I am overstating it? Well, you may want to look at the track record of the current administration. They will limit your use of the internet as “protection” that you may or may not want. You will not have a choice, it could happen unless we as denizens of the internet get our act together and grow up.

Granted I am asking everyone on the net to maintain self-control, but shouldn’t we be doing that already? Aren’t we adults? Shouldn’t we be watching out for everyone safety, including our children, online?

What I am asking is that we as a people grow up to use the matured technology we have been given. Maybe it is too much to ask for, after all this is new stuff and technology matures much faster than we as humans do. Maybe we are not ready for it, or maybe it came along too fast. Maybe it is all to easy and human nature is just exploiting another avenue of perversion and decadence that we are not meant to have yet.

Technology, you got to love it, but you have to respect it as well, because without respect for it and those other using it, it just becomes a tool without a useful purpose, and one that can be taken away.

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For the first time in a long time I am feeling like Fred Flintstone. I go out to work, bring home a Bronto or two and know that Wilma is there to cook it up. It is a strange sensation being part of a traditional gender role relationship again. I like it.

I don’t know that I have talked about this specific topic in this way before, but I have talked around it a bit in terms of male/female relationships. In those cases it was why we as men feel the way we do, now it is just an expression of contentment on Fred’s part.

Personally I find nothing wrong with gender roles and living in a place where gender roles are observed. I know that today we are in society where gender roles can get blurred, but why is that? Is it that men are getting less manly, or are women becoming more masculine? If you ask me it is the latter, and I am not so sure that is such a good thing.

Men are told to get in touch with their feminine side, but I rarely hear women talk about getting in touch with their masculine side; probably because they are already doing that. The advance in women’s rights (which I have no problem with, and think it was long over due) has however put women into a more masculine role of provider. Here is where I think Fred is going to be threatened.

Fred likes to think of himself as the sole provider. When Wilma is providing (completely or in addition to) he feels he is not doing his part and gets grouchy. The ingrain machismo is bruised whether he wants to admit it or not. It helps if Wilma continues on with her traditional role and respects his feelings (often stepped on by overachieving women) and he can deal with it. In fact Fred may offer to run the MMH Vac (mini-mastodon Vacuum) and thus adds value when poor Wilma is tired too (after she is working as well.)

The hard part at this point is when Wilma expects it to happen and bashes Fred for not helping out. When Fred is put on the spot to do it, he now feels like he’s Wilma and that is not cavemanly at all. Wilma needs to be supportive rather than derisive. After all Fred is having a hard enough time with all this anyways. These new roles go against forty thousand years of training and this is hard to get used to.

But Fred is a good sport and will give it his best. Sometimes it just takes a little time and understanding as Fred gets used to the new situation.