Archives

What keeping Archives means to me

Archiving Everything is a way to secure the freedom of information, clarity and lifespan of information. Since 1996, its trillion-page quest ensures transparency in a time of obfuscation, censorship, and corporate monopolies. The problem has persisted since the start, and as with anything else, the internet has become another tool of human greed. It does not take many archive binges to see that the B in Bill Gates actually stood for Beelzebub. Though I jest, the monopoly was known, warned about and foreseen even back then.

To archive is to resist greed and stand up to whatever faces these evils choose to wear. Regardless of how libertine or authoritarian they may seem, whether they approach us with a smile or a snarl, there are people who want to limit the flow of culture for their own personal gain. They'll use any kind of messaging they can get their hands on, and insist they're our protectors. All the while, continuing to erode the very communal culture we've spent precious time and love building. The cruelty in this is immense, the dehumanisation is unspeakable. The notion that groups of people do not deserve to keep their cultures alive, even when the internet exists the way it does, should inspire a potent dread.

But this evil comes as no surprise when archiving is how we learn from our mistakes and strive to do better next time. Of course it's not only repressive, but anti-educational rhetoric under the guise of safety, practicality and whatever neologisms they choose. So we must Archive Everything as long as we never use this beautiful gift for evil. We don't even have to use the Internet Archive as our sole method; any one of us can make an archive of some kind and keep culture alive even in the littlest of ways. There is much that deserves to stay offline (and off this planet), but we cannot be idle either, because choosing to forget is choosing nonexistence.