“Writer’s block” - A euphemism for having nothing to say. It happens. But I was thinking about a piece on Freedom and Liberty, a couple of terms that have been hijacked, co-opted by the far right. The idea was that by freedom, they (the right) mean freedom to conduct business, to make a profit at the expense of others. I thought of a George Carlin bit about businessmen doing evil, then going out on the golf course to "relax" and discuss more ways to do evil. But I was failing to get a concrete theme for an article.
So I went on facebook.
In its complicity with the three-letter spook agencies, FB has the freedom to record and monitor everything everyone says on the site. We see a lot of seemingly anti-establishment or even quasi-revolutionary material posted on facebook. Lots of well - meaning liberals making comments about the injustice of it all. Indeed. I was moved to post the following:
Well, we still have freedom of speech in a way. We get to complain about all the government corruption and bullshit in facebook. As long it stays here, "they" just keep laughing all the way to the wars and the bank.
These are comments that followed in response, they are left as posted.
SG: The power of acting, in the character of a moral personality, according to the dictates of the will, without other check, hindrance, or prohibition than such as may be imposed by just and necessary laws and the duties of social life.
blacks law dictionary says that freedom is freedom as long as it is legal. sounds like a contradiction...
bouvier's is even more explicit: FREEDOM, Liberty; the right to do what is not forbidden by law. Freedom does not preclude the idea of subjection to law; indeed, it presupposes the existence of some legislative provision, the observance of which insures freedom to us, by securing the like observance from other
Me: Further on this, facebook may be the greatest crowd-control device ever conceived. Facebook is complicit, cooperative with all the three-letter spook agencies. Crowd control might save food stamps, though. As Bob Marley said, a Hungry Man is an Angry Man.
RH: is a gerbil in a cage free, yet it runs and runs, is a man in solitary confinement for years free, yet he thinks and dreams...
Me: Why don't you ask him?
RH: what is your question?
Me: Ask the man in solitary if he feels free.
JT: How can speech be free and money at the same time? [Following the supreme court's McCutcheon decision defining unlimited campaign donations as freedom of speech.]
I always thought freedom of speech ended at advocating assassination of large-scale political figures. But then on some TV news I heard a "nice little old lady" from Oklahoma or Kansas, in a meeting with a local congressman, say "Obama should be assassinated." The congressman was seemingly in agreement but tiptoed, smiling, around the statement. There were no reports of the little old lady being questioned by anyone.
As we see, everyone has a different take on the subject. Here in Colorado, freedom is currently defined as legal marijuana, unrestricted gun possession, and of course, freedom to conduct business.
Conclusion for now: We have free speech up to where it interferes with business. And perhaps more importantly, as long as it's all talk with no action.
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