I've always found this quotation inspiring: "I'm not trying to change the world. I'm trying to stop the world from changing me."

I used to attribute the quote to Thoreau, but it seems that was mistaken: it is actually from Ammon Hennacy.

I have succeeded in changing the world to some extent, and I am still trying to achieve more. At the same time, I see how the use of nonfree software, and digital dis-services, has changed others for the worse. Millions surrender their freedom and privacy without moving a muscle to protect it. They run freedom-denying software that snoops on them constantly. They let Facebook use them. They play nonfree video games for hours, killing time which they could have used for something meaningful, and learning nothing except how to retreat from society.

Even if they would find it hard work to resist these evils 100%, there are surely parts they could easily resist. It sure looks like malicious technology has changed them for the worse.

Please don't let it change you!

Since 1990, 1/4 of Australian [ex-]Ministers Go on to Work for Lobbyists or Special Interests, according to a study that tracked each one's career.

The author of the report said that this is not necessarily bad, Perhaps I'd agree, if each one had been surprised to receive a cushy job after leaving government office.

Let's not be naive. Government officials know they will be offered such work, and their decisions while in office are likely to be influenced by the prospect. Accepting a job that is unofficially contingent on their policies is morally equivalent to taking a bribe.

Plutocratist governments in Central America are forcing peasants off their land and converting it to plantations or mines. Sometimes women organize and stop them.

President Yameen of the Maldives was defeated. Apparently he was unable to rig the election.

OPEC predicts that coal and oil usage will increase for decades.

If that happens, it won't continue for the rest of the century. The poverty, hunger and wars will stop it. However, that is not a second-best solution; that is failure.