Yes, I have been on both pro and anti-GAFAM communities before, yet I’m still respecting people from each sides. However, as I celebrate my 10th anniversary of my journey into numerous worldwide tech communities, those ups and downs have led me into one big conclusion:
You cannot be selective on whom would you want to act, and don’t act, as the salt and light of the world.
Yep, that verses from Matthew 5. And in this time, read again verses 14-16.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:16 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.5.16.NIV
God wants ourselves to share good deeds to all. There are no verses that implicitly states that you should “shine your light to everyone except Facebook” or “shine your light to everyone except those who practice surveillance capitalism”.
No. And you know what? When you decide to judge those greedy governments and companies which you have declared them not respecting to your privacy, how about those people, those who still believe in God and favors Him through their works, but worked or partnered with these companies?
Would you judge them as big sinners as well because you have judged the company before them?
Look back at the case of Jacob in the kingdom of Egypt, or Daniel and his friends in Babylonia. Both kingdoms were considered big sinners, primarily because of their disbelief in God as well as their disgraceful practices.
However, God strategically placed and used His people in the kingdoms of big sinners to make change, to make difference so the people can glorify Him to let Him save, not curse, those kingdoms. This is how we should act in the world of privacy greediness—both in the sides of the privacy-greedy companies as well as privacy-greedy individuals.
And speaking of decentralization of control of data, technology, and the Internet, I’ve stated before that decentralization won’t eventually replace centralization, because centralization is indeed a vital key for decentralization to work. I know that’s ironic, but unfortunately, it’s the truth. This world and the universe is primarily modeled after centralization.
Sunrises and sunsets won’t come without the Earth centralizing itself to its sun while centralizing its rotation on its axis. And if you believe and fear of God, you are alredy centralizing yourself to Him.
And lastly, from that simple “salt and light” illustrations, God really favors us who exhibit our saltiness and shine our light to anyone without any exceptions, including the digital worlds. As long as we’ve done our part, please kindly leave the right to Him to avenge those who are greedy.
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