Sometimes it is a bit unnerving to think of just how slender our links to the outside world are. Admittedly, not being able to have internet for a day is a first world problem, as other people have far more serious difficulties, and so I am not overly upset or complaining too greatly about it. Nonetheless, I thought it might be worthwhile at least to reflect upon just how tenuous our links are with others as far as communication is concerned. This is a lesson I am particularly sensitive to, and hopefully it is not a problem for anyone else either.

All it took for me to be cut off from most of my links to the outside world was a problem with a wireless router that is still sitting next to me on my desk as I write this. For whatever reason, and it is not exactly clear what that reason is at this point, that wireless router stopped working for my coworkers a couple of nights ago. Since my computer had a hardwire connection to the hub, which is in the conference room next door to my office, I was not originally affected by this problem, but knowing that my coworkers like to use the internet as often as I do (especially for their classes), I did not complain about them installing a new one (since it did not work when it was restarted), even though it meant having them using my desk while I was at class.
Unfortunately, the new router did not work, we did not have the network password, which is several years old (longer than any of us have been around), and once the new one had been installed the old one refused to work at all. So now we are waiting a way to get the ISP and our new router to cooperate. Hopefully that happens very soon, as we are all at least a bit impatient to get our internet back. Without the internet, a computer is little more than a glorified word processor, and there are only so many blog entries I want to write before I am able to post them online.

Having told that story, I would like to examine the larger context a little bit. Those of us who come from developed countries tend to take it for granted that we will be able to be in touch with loved ones on a regular basis, no matter where we go or how remote we are. We depend on internet access for our communication with friends and family, for information about what is going on “back home,” as well as for entertainment and stress relief purposes. These links are rather tenuous. Being impatient people who like instantaneous communication, we are largely unused to other, less immediate, means of communication, and those are often not reliable anyway (not when the Thai postal service has lost or misplaced quite a few pieces of my own personal mail).

It does not take much to keep a blogger at bay. Wireless internet connections and the routers that provide access to the internet are fairly fragile. It is easy for governments that are so inclined to block ip addresses and sometimes difficult to access websites if one tries to use a proxy server (which I do on occasion). And these are simply technical difficulties, not including the more active harassment and punishment that can occasionally be directed at the overly outspoken writer. Our abilities to communicate with others and express ourselves are very fragile and easily threatened. All too often we take for granted that we will have this access and that it will always be respected, but in a world like ours, we ought to be more appreciative of the freedoms that we have in a recognition of their vulnerability. It is not so hard to silence others as we might wish it to be.