David CookThe Internet is not a commodity or a privilege.
The Internet is a human right of the modern age.
"As necessary as water," said businessman John "Thunder" Thornton.
In our modern, digitized First World, we as societies and we as individuals cannot prosper and flourish without Internet access. Sure, you can die within days from thirst, but you can wither over time -- as a business, school, job applicant, artist -- from a lack of connectivity.
Look at Thornton's new Marion County development, Jasper Highlands. All the other necessary services are in place, but not Internet access, and Thornton says folks won't move there without it.
He's hamstrung: Internet providers like AT&T won't build the needed infrastructure without Thornton paying more than $1 million of his own money, and local municipalities are forbidden by state law to offer Internet service in places they don't already offer electricity.
So a fight to overturn the law has begun.
"Mr. Chairman, tear down this wall," Thornton wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.
See? Internet access is second cousins with democracy, and while equating an Internetless society with East Germany may be a stretch, it is not a far one.
"The same rights that people have offline must also be protected online," reads a statement from the United Nations.
It was just after World War II when the U.N. crafted its exquisite Declaration of Human Rights, which lists the necessary ingredients for humans to live in peaceful, free and just ways. When these conditions exist -- the declaration has 30 articles -- then human dignity is respected and societies flourish.
Water, food, shelter, a living wage, education.
Freedom from slavery. Freedom to own property, think for one's self and marry.
"The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," reads Article 18.
It's time to update this list, for our world has changed unthinkably since 1948, as digitization has become the largest change agent in the developed world. Locate any prosperous economy, effective industry or promising innovation and you have found something that is irrevocably connected.
The Internet is the new cave wall, the backdrop by which other fundamental human rights -- speech, work, leisure -- are expressed, making connectivity a form of democracy. (In many repressive regimes, Internet access is banned or heavily censored.)
Facebook helped create Internet.org, a global project to bring affordable Internet to the two-thirds of the world without it. Google is investing $1 billion to launch connectivity satellites. There's talk of a national broadband highway.
"Connecting the world will be one of the most important things we all do in our lifetimes," Mark Zuckerberg wrote.
Obviously, Zuckerberg would think so; he stands to profit from a connected world. But beyond his neoliberal desire for a larger Internet, there stands a philosophical platform: the Internet is part and parcel of a free and flourishing modern life, which means Internet access is not just a question of commerce, but of humanity.
So how do we bridge the many digital inequalities that exist between the poor and nonpoor, both here and across the world?
In asking that question, the others inevitably pop up: How far can government creep into the private marketplace? How do we pay for all this? Beyond access, how do we encourage digital literacy and production, not just consumption?
Those are good questions.
But instead of asking them under the old paradigm -- Internet as commodity -- we must reframe the debate through a new lens: Internet connectivity is a fundamental quality of the 21st century and should be available to all peoples for their betterment, joy and safety.
This is not YouTubing cat videos on the subway. This is the future of so much: from classrooms to job applications to medical inventions. With our knowledge-based economy, a lack of Internet access is like lack of access to the wheel 4,000 years ago or, 100,000 years before that, fire.
Locally, the city of Chattanooga is working up a plan to offer free Wi-Fi via city buildings, parks, recreation centers and other open spaces.
Here in Gig City, that's good. But not good enough.
"Make the gig free for everybody," one friend said. "That would be the most innovative thing our city has ever done."
Innovative, and so very, very right.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.