People tend to react strongly when someone comes along and strips them of their rights. Unless it is done gradually, over time… with reassurences at each step that this will ‘only be used in extreme cases’.
Laws are laws. We must recognize what power each law gives the government – whether or not the government is claiming to ‘reserve it’ for such ‘extreme cases’ or ‘justifiable instances’ or not. Because eventually, these laws will be applied to their fullest!
One such example is Australia.
Everybody is against child pornography. We would also not like our young kids to be able to access regular pornography over the internet, would we? We would all go to great lengths to protect our children! That is part of human nature. So, when Australia began to make sounds about the dangers of pornography over the internet and needing to protect our children from it, people listened – and allowed the government to pass some of the most restrictive internet censorship laws!
Of course, much of this was not enforced. Everybody knew this was just a way to get at child pornographers – and to keep little kids off porn sites – and had nothing to do with limiting freedom of speech and expression! Right? Yes, everyone was obliged to install the ‘censorship software’ on their computers, but since the government was not enforcing much of these laws, people could choose to either turn it on or off. So, no problem, right?
Except that last week (mostly unnoticed in the US pre-election frenzy), the Australian government announced that it is going to begin enforcing that the ‘censorship software’ be turned on!
Consider the implications of this – in order to censor something, the Australian government will have to scan it. Therefore, any ‘sensitive’ or ‘proprietary’ or ‘private’ information will be accessed by a government bureaucrat….which opens an incredibly large potential for abuse – as well as goes against the inherent spirit of the internet. Want to encrypt sensitive information you send over the internet? That just might be illegal, because it would hamper the government’s ability to monitor the content…
Does it really do anything for the welfare of our children, to give the government this much power over our lives?
And it would be silly to speak up now – after all, it is a law that has been in existence for a while….there’s nothing wrong with a government enforcing its laws now, is there? But, it started slowly and reasonably…. and next year, as it slowly becomes enforced, it will be too late to begin to protest against this law.
Let’s take another example – one that is not aimed specifically at the Internet: Canada’s ‘Section 13’ of the Human Rights Act (NOT to be confused with the Human Rights CODE, like I have done in some of my comments in the past. My bad). When it was passed, we were all told it was simply a tool to root out neo-nazis and dangerous anti-semites… so we all nodded our heads and went along with it.
The Human Rights Commissions/Tribunals – established as the guardians of Human Rights – were set up with the best ideals. To make them accessible to people who have no means to afford a lawyer, they were made a little less ‘rigorous’ than a ‘real’ court. At that time, it seemed a good idea to make ‘getting justice’ accessible to everyone…
But, the HRCs have now used ‘Section 13’ to force a Christian priest to renounce his faith and forbid him to ever – privately or publicly – comment on issues relating to homosexuality or marriage. It has also been used to fine a restaurant owner who did not permit a patron to smoke cannabis on his premises – even though allowing it could have cost the restaurant owner his liquor licence. It has aslso been used to try to force a doctor to perform a medical procedure for which he did not think he was qualified. The list goes on and on!
But what is insidious about this ‘censorship creep’ is what it does to our society as a whole. It rips us apart!
It gives those pompous apartchicks and busybodies the ability to wrap themselves in the cloak of righteous indignation and impose their will in ways that would otherwise not be tolerated!
Here is an example of what I mean: reccently, a College (well, University) radio station manager, Matthew Crosier, wrapped himself up in such a cloak of righteous indignation and got rid of a show which he did not like. The reasoning? Even though the hosts assured him they would comply with any policy he might impose on them, he retorted that – and I kid you not, this is a direct quote:
“We are not looking for people to conform to our mandate we are looking for programming that fits our mandate.”
In other words, Mr. Crosier is saying: “Your obedience is insufficient – you must believe what I believe, or I’ll kick you off the air! Your actual behaviour is secondary to your political and personal views.”
This same person also refused to pass any actual complaints from listeners onto the show’s hosts – even with the names and contact info of the complainants redacted. And, this is what he said about the fact that during ‘Canadian Islamic History Month’, they did a show about the Prophet Mohammad:
“How do we build community by presenting the history of Mohammed by two non believers?’
And, there you have it. Denying someone their right to speak their mind, because they do (or do not) belong to a specific religious group.
In my opinion, by making that statement, Mr. Crosier had himself breeched Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Code – but because his beliefs and views are in in agreement with those of the current elites, in whose hands the control over Human Rights issues lie, he will never be prosecuted or in any way punished for breaking the law. We have seen it before…
Because this ‘creeping censorship’ is not about changing behaviour – it is about changing peoples’ beliefs!
It is not enough to obey, you must also LOVE big brother!
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 