Even with censorship, the Internet is a force for change.
Interpretation
The Internet serves as a powerful catalyst for transformation, even in the face of restrictions.
Peter Singer's quote highlights the significant role the Internet plays in driving societal change, suggesting that despite efforts to control or censor information, its inherent ability to connect and mobilize people ensures that it remains a formidable force for revolution and progress. This illustrates the resilience of communication technologies in fostering awareness and facilitating collective action regardless of obstacles.
In practice
During a discussion on free speech and technology, one might use this quote to argue for the Internet's role in societal transformation.
The belief that the animals exist because God created them - and that he created them so we can better meet our needs - is contrary to our scientific understanding of evolution and, of course, to the fossil record, which shows the existence of non-human primates and other animals millions of years before there were any human beings at all.
Pain and suffering are in themselves bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers. How bad a pain is depends on how intense it is and how long it lasts, but pain of the same intensity and duration are equally bad, whether felt by humans or animals.
What is faith? If you believe something because you have evidence for it, or rational argument, that is not faith. So faith seems to be believing something despite the absence of evidence or rational argument for it.
Almost everybody accepts that some people can be killed. 'The concept of 'brain death' - the belief that people on respirators can legitimately be killed - shows that.
If we all think only of our own interests, we are headed for collective disaster - just look at what we are doing to our planet's climate.
Even in the era of AIDS, sex raises no unique moral issues at all. Decisions about sex may involve considerations about honesty, concern for others, prudence, and so on, but there is nothing special about sex in this respect, for the same could be said of decisions about driving a car. (In fact, the moral issues raised by driving a car, both from an environmental and from a safety point of view, are much more serious than those raised by sex.)
We still have many neighborhoods that are racially identified. We still have many schools that even though the days of state-enforced segregation are gone, segregation because of geographical boundaries remains.
A race preserves its vigor so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond the safeties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
When it comes to dealing with the world's climate and energy challenges, I have a simple rule: change America, change the world.
When I was growing up, I felt like I had to qualify it and say I'm British-Pakistani. But now I kind of feel like, in this day in age, this is what British looks like. It looks like me; it looks like Idris Elba, and hopefully through Nasir Khan, people will see that that's what an American can look like as well.
Always be open to new beginnings. To the universe, every moment is the start of the next big thing in your life.
The biggest impediment to growth is in our minds and not in the world outside, and only constant in the world is change.
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