Yesterday Robert Scoble was in the news more than usual. He used a toll provided by Plaxo to scrape Facebook to retrieve his friends’ data. Since Facebook considers this to be against their Terms of Service, they blocked his account, but subsequently unblocked it. But before his account was unblocked he took questions from people at his video channel. In a response to a question, he glibly mentioned that yes he has broken the law before, like speeding on the highway and that Gandhi has broken laws as well. Predictably he is getting quite a ribbing for ostensibly equating his action to Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement. As I was listening to his comment, I didn’t take offence as an Indian. From the context it was clear that he was making light his actions and when he was pushed, he wanted to convey breaking law may not be bad in of itself. Now I take exception to his comparison because of his subsequent actions and I want to use this to establish one of my points.
Yes, Gandhi broke the laws repeatedly. But only those that he considers them to be immoral. But before breaking the law, he will make it clear to the law makers the reasons why he considers them to be immoral and that he will not obey them. Inevitably, the law makers will punish him for disobeying the law. He will patiently, without resistance undergo the punishment; sometimes imploring his adversaries to levy the punishment accorded by the same immoral law. But alas, Scoble appealed to Facebook to reinstate his account and apparently he has agreed to abide by the condition that he finds objectionable.
Let us hope that this event is equivalent to Gandhi being thrown off the train in South Africa. As a first step, he has joined DataPortability.org. But I want him to start a “homespun” movement. After all spinning wheels are available from a few people (including our own EnThinnai). Let us work together to perfect the wheel. There is no need to be locked within the walled garden. Swaraj now! Swaraj forever!
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Posted by aswath at January 4, 2008 04:05 PM