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The Dangers of Government Tech Illiteracy
One of my favorite rappers ever is Nas. There are countless songs by him that I can recite from memory on a moment’s notice. One of these is “Hate Me Now”, an infamous song due to its music video in which there was a portrayal of Nas as Jesus which was deemed very controversial at the time. In that song, he has a lyric which states “Fear what they don’t understand, hate what they can’t conquer, guess it’s just a theory of man”. As I survey the happenings in the world in 2020, I can’t help but feel its relevance.
In the context of a global pandemic, there has been a rush of nationalism and the closing of borders. Much of this has been due to governments prioritizing the health of their citizens, avoiding any inbound travelers to stem the spread of Covid-19. Mixed with this has been a sense of nationalistic actions aimed at keeping economies within a country, moving away from reliance on Chinese manufacturing. Namely, India has seen its border conflict with China escalate and has taken to banning products and services from China as a result. This spirit of banning products and services from China is also very present in the United States. The bans from the US government have been centered around potential data and intellectual property breaches by going after companies like ZTE, Huawei, Tik Tok, and WeChat. And while on the surface these bans sound reasonable or ridiculous…
