Digital Dissenter

So in my first post post-BJourn, I said I wouldn't be blogging until something grated my carrot enough to inspire a bit of e-ranting. This week my carrot was sufficiently grated.

I was really excited to attend the charity premiere of "Jane's Journey" the feature film that documents the life of Jane Goodall. Her work as a conservationist/environmentalist/humanitarian is truly inspiring. Of course, as an animal rights activist, for me the most important aspect of her legacy is the great insight that her work has offered into the lives of our very close relatives, the chimpanzees. The implications of these insights were aptly expressed by anthropologist Louis Leaky, when he received a telegram from Goodall exclaiming that she had witnessed the chimps creating and using tools. Leaky's response was: “Now we must redefine man, redefine tool – or accept chimpanzees as human.”

In wanting to write a post about censorship online I have been reading up on a number of issues ranging from the Great Firewall of China, the proposed firewall in Australia to the legislation concerning the ban of so-called “crush-videos” in the US. The latter in particular got me thinking about the catch-22 involved in certain types of activism that require the distribution of content that contains explicit violence – especially towards animals. (Forgive me if just this once I actually use this blog entry which is meant for the discussion of digital activism for some of my own activism.)

If, like myself, you didn’t know what “crush-videos” are; thanks to the Web I now know that they refer to videos of women crushing small animals with their bare feet or stiletto heels. Apparently there is a (sick and perverted) market for such content. A ban was passed on the creation, possession and distribution of such videos in the US in 1998.