Freedom of speech
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Freedom of speech has always confused me. No matter how hard I try and want to believe it isn't, I always end up convincing myself that freedom of speech is nothing but a part of a scheme to silence people.People go round and thinking about the fact that they can say whatever they want, they have the freedom. Their happy, society stays stable.
Of course I do not randomly choke up statements like that, I tried to believe that freedom of speech really was freedom of speech, but some things that have happened is making it hard. I tried to be silent, to shut up, but I have failed.
Farenheight 911. No one wanted to release it. Disney canceled the contract. Michael Moore was stuck with a documentary he spent lots of time making. In the end Miramax agreed to release it, if he cut out large portions of it. So that's what he did.
I saw Farenheight 911, there was nothing shocking, average-documentary, not too convincing. -- then I saw the bonus material. It was an infinite times better than the movie itself. It showed what really happened. If that had been shown in the movie, then Bush would not be sitting in the White House today. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the movie and the only way you can see it is to buy the DVD. How much audience was lost?
Then, several days ago Kanye West said this during the Katarina benefit concert:
I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food. ... They've given them permission to go down and shoot us. ... George Bush doesn't care about black people ... We already realized a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way, and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us.
It was censored. I am not saying that I fully agree and or support his views, I am just saying that it was censored, to clear up eventual confusion.
Two cases (that I know of) where some anti-Bush/government ideas were censored. Not directly by the government, but by the media. The media has many reasons to do this, but all reasons have something to do with politics. The media can go against it, and lose money (which they of course wouldn't).
Of course there are countries far worse than the US, like China, Cuba and North Korea for instance. The difference is that those countries are 'bad, evil', they oppress freedom. They are totalitarian.
The United States is the home of freedom, of 'good', defenders of freedom and peace. Go defend your freedom of speech. When a person can not express what he feels about the rulers, then something is needed to be done.
I have lost faith in the freedom of speech. I wish that it was not just a scheme, but truths always hurt.
posted by Err0r @ 9:06 PM,
