The Internet provides the backdrop for an important technical controversy in the domain of telecommunications. Like all good technical controversies, this one is political as well. The controversy is interesting to computer scientists because it helps focus our thinking on system design and evolution, and because it gives us an opportunity to reflect on the nature of the Internet. To highlight some differences in a brief format, I will present the controversy in the style of the Hegelian dialectic (admittedly, though, with oversimplifications).