The World as We Know It

I had the honor and the privilege to see in person General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA.  I'm no war monger, that's for sure.  I'm not one who believes in abandoning personal privacy in the name of security, either. 

There is the world as we want it to be, and the world we live in.  The sad fact is that we live in a world where both good and evil exist along with varying degrees on either side.   I so wish that all problems could be solved with a group hug and a home-cooked meal, but that's not the world we live in.   We have been maiming and killing each other for control and power since the dawn of civilization.  I'm not saying that it's right, I'm just saying what is.  I don't claim to have the answers. 

What intrigued me today was General Hayden's comments about the creation of the internet.  The internet was created to move lots of trusted information freely and easily between legitimate sources -- initially it was information sharing between institutions of higher learning.  He described it as finding a super efficient way to move stuff between the kitchen and the living room.  What happened is that the less-than-ethical intruded and security measures were attempted to keep the bad guys out.  It's like putting a locked door between the kitchen and living room.  You just defied its very purpose. 

Cyber Space is an uncharted frontier, and it's anybody's game out there.  There is NO WAY to completely control it.  It's 1,000,000 worse than the Wild West ever was.  Private, personal things that were once confined to your home office desk drawer are now open season for any hacker. 

I'm not so sure on this dependence on the internet.  Going completely offline is sounding better and better all the time.