The Perils of Censorship

There is little in this life that I would find as reprehensible as censorship. Though the malicious or malignant idea may engender offense and though the words or sentiments of the agent provocateur may even incite others to despicable or deplorable acts, the intentional effort to silence another entirely and forbid them from expression is perhaps itself the height of truly atrocious acts one may engage in, in respect to engagement and communication. Beyond the simple matter of its gross and repressive nature, the act or effort to censor or silence another, either before or in the course of their expression is equally a wholly disingenuous act of a supposedly strident thinker or speaker, while also being emblematic of their own inherent insecurity in the notions and ideas they may seek to posit.

Thought often the province of the single minded totalitarian, such is and can be observed to be present throughout any variety of political or social ideological alignment one may think of, as it supercedes the very notions of inclusivity which is more and more frequently, being enacted by those who would claim to be the champions of such. For to those who seek “safe spaces,” the proverbial slippery slope into abject orthodoxy and the adherence to an insistence that such be the only true or acceptable notions espoused in the open market of ideas, the very act of seeking to silence opposition as opposed to offering retorts, in effect closes the very market in which they would peddle their intellectual or sociological wares and in doing so, exposes the very sort of fear, hatred and intolerance that they would otherwise seek to condemn.

Should one truly be secure in their convictions, then the fear of opposition or questioning should be non existent. Should one truly believe that which they say is to be true, right and just, then surely they should, in the course of offering such to the world, not only be unafraid of opposition, but welcoming of it, as it is only through such conflict and argument that the true validity of such may be shown and the real and proper strength of said convictions be truly fleshed out. Absent this, argument itself is nothing but empty propagandist rhetoric, meant to fall on the ears of those already in agreement and those who in the absence of a contrary position offered, have no choice but to accept such as fact.

In this, should a speaker, thinker, writer or advocate of any idea or of any stripe wish to be taken as respected intellectual, and their ideas themselves taken as worthy of consideration, their openness to opposition and contradiction by opposing parties is not only a right and good thing to court, but an essential one. For it is within the realm of argument that the notions and positions offered may truly win the hearts and minds of others, as without such, the singular narratives presented and accepted, absent alternative offerings becomes themselves the province of orthodoxy. This orthodoxy being itself is in turn, built shaky grounds as when detraction is finally and inevitably found, heard or thought of privately, the original orthodoxy will become the focus of abject scorn and ridicule, even if such is only rooted in the enthusiasm with which many may take to that which may appear rebellious or revolutionary.

It is for these reasons, among the plethora of more basic and obvious intellectual and moral or ethical causes, that the actors participating in censorship, be it by way of the blocking of speech entirely or merely the demeaning of detractors by way of spurious slanderous claims relating to their person, should be themselves viewed with nothing short of scorn and contempt by any who may think or may seek to think with open minds and rational processes of thought. For as has been demonstrated time and time again, the enthusiasm with which one or the groups to which they belong may take to totalitarian senses of narrative and debate, defy all social, political or ideological paradigms, short of those which hold true and objective reason as the higher virtues, as it is only through this cold objective rationality that real and valid truth may ever, in any sense, be realized.

We must not run or hide from criticism of dissent, as argument is itself, the very whetstone upon which our ideas may be sharpened or dulled. And should one wish to maintain the lopsided bluntness of an unrefined point or notion in such a fashion, they should be regarded as nothing less than cowardly and as nothing more than a strident and obnoxious fool.

Is it time for a change yet?

Is it time for a change yet? Plenty of people would say so. Plenty seem to think so.

After decades of deregulation of the banking and finance sectors, all carried out with the specific aim of allowing the rich to get richer, the economy of the masses has suffered severely, while those at the top are enjoying a type of wealth, status and privilege never seen by this planet before. From shelter to sustenance and everything in between, the most basic needs of people have become so commercialized, commoditized, controlled and corrupted, that even little Oliver would need a credit check before humbly asking for “more.”

Is it time yet?

With tent cities and homeless camps cropping up across the nation, houses and whole neighborhoods sit idle, awaiting a speculators figures to give the green light to part them off like a used car that goes to rot in a patch of tall weeds. As major American cities find themselves going up for private auctions to pay debts to nebulous conglomerates of wealthy financiers, with the working people who stand to suffer the greatest, erroneously being saddled with the blame, social strife and crimes born of generations of desperation and need are met with brutality and obstinate loathsome judgement, the systems in play taking great lengths to ignore the true sources of such problems.

Is it time yet?

A multi-tiered political system of separate but equal, offering tip-top influence and power to the highest bidder while striving to convince the people below that their votes count, while taking every available step to prevent them from casting one, sets out false paradigms of left and right to distract the masses from the cancer of corporate oligarchy, while throughout the whispers and cries for revolution, doubt as to the prospective virtue of public and collective good are sewed throughout so as to ensure no consensus is reached between the options of responsive state and anarchistic social Darwinism. The glossy fliers, hi-definition commercial promises and cults of personality which are force fed each election cycle, seek only to harness the nebulous rage of the people for their own quick victories, before all is turned back to serve the moneyed influence peddlers and corporate masters of this, our industrial power complex and still, we’re told that our voice matters.

Is it time yet?

Non-violent nobodies finding their lives taken away as they’re penned up in steel and concrete boxes, with murderers, rapists and thieves of the higher orders of our society given little more than stern warnings as “affluenza” shifts from being a made-up term used to defend the privileged in court, to a common concept more descriptive of the broken class based in-justice system and it’s contrived measure of human value. The best government money can buy, the finest justice that status can claim.

Is it time yet?

Body counts in foreign attacks quantified by nationality. “Five Americans and fifty others, dead.” A subtle attempt to further dehumanize those who are not of our tribe, for the purpose of making their casual murders in the name of freedom and commerce acceptable to the masses. Generations raised on war, with concepts of virtue, honor and duty being co-opted for the purposes of nationalist combat. The endless hours of Halo and director’s cut blu-rays of countless romanticized war movies, indoctrinating the underclasses into the notions that killing and dying for your country is more noble than living to better your world.
The concept of empire, now repackaged as a quest to “defend freedom,” so as to distract from resource grabs and subjugation that has come to define American multinational business. An “us-versus-them” narrative, so well crafted, that the minute and relative differences between cultures are sold as reason enough for “us” to kill “them” and take what they have.

Is it time yet?

The classic slave pens of old have now been replaced with wooden stools for the elderly to sit  upon as they greet Walmart shoppers on their way to purchase sneaker and t-shirts made by children, labeled as “workers,” for whom the net cost of a single shoe is often greater than the daily wage paid to make a hundred of them. The notion of slavery, while simply abhorrent to the people, now written off as costly for companies who’ve realized that to enslave a person in the land they live and pay them fractions of pennies so as to say they’re getting a “fair deal,” is now joined with the word “wage” at home and “outsourcing” abroad. The cost of wealth, again proving to be dignity of millions.

Is it time yet?

Courts which now serve the purposes of rationalizing the inhuman evils of greed, corruption, subjugation, erosion of civic virtue and the domination of the many at the hands of the few, rule from polished benches set high above the heads of those below. Ruling on matters of popular consequence with only exclusive benefit in mind, these men and women, many of whom call themselves ‘Christian,’ slam gavels to call for order before casting judgment upon matters which so often break the very commandments of compassion espoused by their enlightened profits, while turning to some selective interpretation of the law, further rationalizing the evils they do in the name of supposed order. A system corrupted by ideology and self-righteous condemnations, which at the same time while consistently serving wealth and entitlement to power, makes the concept of justice so murky, that even those who suffer are led to question if they did something wrong.

Is it time yet?

Whereas police were once called “civil servants,” the term is now lost beneath armor plating and hidden behind assault masks and soldier’s rifles. So militarized are those who are supposed to be our protectors, that by both equipment and action, one is hard pressed to find the difference between detectives in small town America and commandos in Afghanistan. Flashbangs in toddlers cribs and “justified homicides” occurring in every other raid at a wrong address, discretion as the better part of valor has now been replaced by might making right, with the shield now protecting our oppressors from the rage and will of those oppressed, signifying little more than their place as modern city guards, sent out to protect the new nobility, in this new feudal era.

Is it time yet?

Our politics, our police, our courts and our corrections. Our industries and energy, economy and medicine. Our candidates and managers, our labor and our sweat. With revolution brewing is it time for action yet?