Freedom of Speech or Freedom to Think?

Freedom of Speech or Freedom to Think

 

We talk a great deal about our precious Freedom of Speech, and certainly the Internet has given wings to our voices.  Simply by pressing my fingertips to these little keys my words go out across the entire nation and even throughout the world. 

Several years ago I posted a short piece I'd written entitled Imagine.  What a delight it was to hear from people in Australia, New Zeeland, Germany, Hungry the UK and Norway.  Nothing from China, sad to say. 

As fast as we press the Send key our words shoot out into space, landing everywhere.  Compare that to the weeks it took for the news of Abe Lincolns assassination to work its way across America. 

And so we are now free to say anything we wish to say, and we can back it up with videos.  We can tell the truth, as we see it, or we can lie through our teeth and doctor pictures to go along. 

Instant, unlimited Freedom of Speech.  Who would have imagined it!  But this freedom carries responsibilities.  At least it should, if we want to hold onto it. 

First and foremost we must be ready to stand up and defend our right to this open world wide forum.  We must remember that just as long as Corporate forces see the ability to steal our precious internet out from our very fingers and turn a few billion dollars, we will need to remain vigilant.  And that means we will need to stand guard just as long as we have powerful corporations vacuuming up the Land. 

In addition we must school ourselves to be as honest in our postings as we can be.  For some of us this is a challenge.  I love to embellish.  What's a good story if it can't be stretched just a teeny bit, or tweeked to make it even more enjoyable.  Or twisted to sell a point.  But there are some who simply lie.  Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and some fools are bound to believe you.  Now that can seem like real power.  Of course it will ultimately undermine and destroy our ability to use this wonderful, open channel. 

So our final challenge is to begin to practice that other Freedom.  A Freedom we don't talk much about, but it is every bit as important as our Freedom of Speech.  It is our Freedom to Think!  That's right Folks.  We can actually use our brain independently without having to be told what to think or how to think it.  Of course it is more difficult than it appears.  We have been told how to think from the time mommy first slapped our little hands and said, "No, no!"  We have been conditioned to think in certain ways by our teachers, by our peer groups, by our drill sargeant, by our bosses and by the Corporate Media that pounds into our brains daily. 

Rather than exercising our Freedom to Think, we practice what I call, "Brain Jerk Reaction."  Stuff pours into our eyes and ears and we react.  When we get enough stuff up there in our dome we sit about nodding and posturing at one another believing we are actually thinking.  But we are simply processing garbage that has been stuffed into us. 

Excercising our Freedom to Think takes hard work and lots of practice.  We actually have to begin to question the piles of goo inside our heads. 

It can be as simple as questioning the most basic statements.  When my eldest daughter was about 4 years old she asked me, "Daddy, why is the sky blue?"  Some dads might have said, "Because God made it blue."  That would have given her an answer and she might have been satisfied.  But it would have been an nonanswer.  Instead, I said "Let's look up the answer in our trusty encyclopedia."  And so we did, just as you can do.  And we learned the answer.  Of course she never did ask, "Daddy, why is the grass green?"  I have been accused of being far too wordy with my children.  A charge which comes mostly from my children and my wife. 

But back to my example.  If I had been raised to believe that the sky is blue because God made it that way, then I may never question or think outside that little confining box. 

To learn to exercise my Freedom to Think, I must begin exercising my brain just as I do the rest of my body. 

It is hard work but well worth the effort.  Because it is our greatest weapon against those who would control and oppress us.  They cannot control someone who is exercising their Right to Think. 

But enough of this prattle, it's time to go exercise. 

 

Curious Carl