Comments on: The first rule of censorship is that you are not allowed to talk about censorship http://blog.xanthippas.com/2009/03/18/the-first-rule-of-censorship-is-that-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about-censorship/ A place for raw, uncensored ideas to be hurled about, recklessly... Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:42:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: How to Get Six Pack Fast http://blog.xanthippas.com/2009/03/18/the-first-rule-of-censorship-is-that-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about-censorship/#comment-997 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:19:33 +0000 http://xanthippaschamberpot.wordpress.com/?p=1276#comment-997 If you want to hear a reader’s feedback :) , I rate this post for 4/5. Detailed info, but I have to go to that damn google to find the missed bits. Thanks, anyway!

Xanthippa says:
Thank you!

YES!!! I DO want feedback!

It is difficult for me to gauge if I am tedious by providing too much detail – or repeating ‘common knowledge’ bits – or if I am falling into the trap of thinking that because I know something, then automatically everyone knows it…

So, what ‘bits’ did I miss?

By the way: this story is EVOLVING and GROWING daily!!! There is SO MUCH MORE on this topic I have to cover…but there are other ‘things’ I also have to write up!

Therefore, I would appreciate feedback on BOTH the ‘focus’ or ‘topic’ that people find most important, as well as the detail level to be included… and, really, anything else that would help me make this a better place!

]]> By: CodeSlinger http://blog.xanthippas.com/2009/03/18/the-first-rule-of-censorship-is-that-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about-censorship/#comment-845 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:53:44 +0000 http://xanthippaschamberpot.wordpress.com/?p=1276#comment-845 Xanthippa:

These aspects of the internet have come to occupy my mind more and more of late. It seems that the internet has been allowed to flourish just long enough to destroy the traditional print media, and is now being clamped down upon and used as an instrument of social control.

Notwithstanding all its promise for access to information, freedom of speech, and the formation of online communities, the internet is simultaneously the ideal medium for disinformation, surveillance and balkanization of opinion.

The solution to this problem is not technological. The global plutocracy controls the production and distribution of technology, and will always find ways to circumvent technology or adapt it to their own purposes.

If we let them.

And the solution is not regulatory. The global plutocracy controls the legislation and enforcement of laws, and will always find ways to circumvent laws or adapt them to their own purposes.

If we let them.

The solution must come from the hearts of the people. They must be woken up.

The people must cast off the narcissism and learned helplessness imposed upon them by the schools and the media. They must become passionate about the defence of their freedom. They must reclaim sovereignty over their own bodies and minds, demand the right to privacy, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to own property, freedom of speech, freedom of information, freedom of association, and all the rest.

If the people do that, the government will be more cowed by the fury and power of an armed, informed and self-reliant public than they are tempted by the wealth of plutocrats. Only in this way can the politicians of today be induced to side with the people against the plutocrats, as they did in the days of the American Revolution.

If the people fail to do that, the plutocrats will create their new world order in the image of ancient Egypt — where Pharaoh owned everything and everyone, and was worshipped as a god — supported by advanced weapons and information technologies, which will seem like magic to an increasingly uneducated and down-trodden public.

This is the big picture. This is what is at stake.

Internet censorship, the perversion of copyright, network-enabled surveillance, and related issues fit together to form a very important part of the picture, but this is still only one theatre of conflict in a global crisis of freedom, which touches every aspect of our lives and threatens everything that makes life worth living.

Xanthippa says:
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!

Of course, being ‘correct’ is not the same thing as ‘having a solution’.

My problem is that even though I am shouting as loudly as I can, I am finding ‘shouting’ does NOT ‘wake the hearts’ of most people. Some – yes. Most – no!!!

Yet, there MUST BE a way to ‘fix’ this: because if there isn’t, then life is no longer worth living. And, I DO have kids – and I WANT very, very much, for life to be ‘worth living’ for THEM!!! Therefore, I MUST find a solution….

Please, indulge me in this….

I agree with all that you have said.

But, there is more to people: there is ‘smart’ people, too. And, ‘smart people’ have always understood the value of freedom of speech (and thought) and the value in free exchange of ideas and information. Perhaps there are not ‘enough’ of us to form a majority, but there sure are a lot of us!

And, there is a second type of ‘people’: people who like to ‘be in on secret things’. This is the appeal of most religions, when it comes right down to the very deep roots of it…. But, most of these people also like to be ‘in’ on all kinds of ‘secret’ things, even if secular, as long as these have an impact on the power-structure of the day!

Now, I do not think I can wave a magic wand and ‘wake the majority of people up’ to the ‘dangers of over-intrusive government’! Not even a ‘critical mass’ of people…

But, I DO think we have a sufficient number of people who DO want to do SOMETHING about this in order to get some ‘stuff’ happening! Something which will be 100% non-violent, technology-based, and which WILL allow some people ‘in’ on a ‘secret’ way to communicate…. A way where one HAS TO be made to understand these dangers of ‘over-intrusion’…

And, once such a ‘secret’ exists, the much more numerous number of people that wish to be ‘special’ by being ‘in’ on the ‘secret’ will allow such a technology to envelop the Earth.

It’ll be a bit of ‘using’ each other: the one group WILL get ‘in’ on ‘stuff’ – increasing their ‘specialness quotient’ (as per Scott Adams) – and, in return, these people will be made to understand the dangers of censorship and over-regulation … the ‘bannies’ philosophy in general.

THIS is the WAY in which the awareness of what is happening can be raised.

THIS is the WAY in which the hearts CAN be awoken…

Because, let’s face it. Most people will NOT want to open their eyes….unless it MARKS them as ‘special’…

I know, I am a bit of a realist…optimistic, but a realist.

But, HOW ELSE could we EVER get enough people even interested in their own fate long enough to make them drop their blinders??? If you have ideas, I am VERY interested..

]]> By: juggernaut http://blog.xanthippas.com/2009/03/18/the-first-rule-of-censorship-is-that-you-are-not-allowed-to-talk-about-censorship/#comment-843 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:19:54 +0000 http://xanthippaschamberpot.wordpress.com/?p=1276#comment-843 “language controls thought and thought controls language”
- george orwell

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