Freedom of Speech Is Not Important. Especially Yours.

The Dirty Tricks Squad doesn't think freedom of speech is important. Especially yours.

     Lovers of the written word and enforcers of freedom of expression have a very grave paradox to deal with in American culture, and it is this: freedom of speech is destroying the quality and force of the written word and burying under avalanches of pointless and hollow expression the very brave and vital perspectives that necessitate the eternal struggle for freedom of expression in the first place. Simply put: there's too much stupid out there and not enough genuine, inspired and novel. With the explosion of the cyber world everyone in America now has a blog and a website where they are the star and are free to parrot whatever synthesis and regurgitation of cultural events is currently being shoved down their gullet. Recently I was invited by my butcher to visit his blog, which I had hoped would reveal some wisdom and unique insight into the art of butchery, which I must confess I know little about (at least the animal physiognomy). Instead I was treated to yet another in depth analysis of the current season of American Idol.

         Freedom cheapens the value of freedom and obscures its rarity and absolute beauty. Freedom blunts the desire to contemplate the sacrifice and discipline necessary to maintain freedom. Like a cat who refuses to behold it's reflection one wonders if Americans are so fiercely in tune with the tragic misuse of our freedom that we hide behind our own banal, uninspired blogs and stubbornly refuse to behold our grotesque, bloated reflection. Has any civilization in history done less good with more resources than we have? Has any epoch in human history failed to produce more beauty and truth and reason to fight for the liberation of the human spirit than we have in the midst of the absolute freedom much better and truer minds suffered to provide us? 
      
  Freedom is enslavement. Only the keenest among us can accept this. Only the slave is a freedom fighter. All others are captors. We are the slave owners of the world. We are the ones who benefit from the enslavement of our fellow humans and do nothing. We are the ones with the gall and lack of irony to write incessantly about freedom and our greatness and goodness when we are neither and in fact quite the opposite: we are the weakest and the worst. Only enslavement can free us from our deep sleep. What Americans need is a great deal less freedom and a lot more opportunities to become freedom fighters.         

Take these examples: in Stalin's Russia some of the great poetry of the 20th century was written. Beautiful, symbolic pleas for freedom and liberty. Poets like Anna Ahkmatova and Lamerntov wove the case for the individual's right to express human emotions and desires into poems that unfolded like birdsong: somewhat confusing if one doesn't know the language but undeniable in it's message: freedom. These poets wrote knowing full well to be discovered was to be brutalized and imprisoned in barbaric camps like Baba Yar, but they wrote and published anyway. They led lives of privation and died badly in prison for having the courage to demand freedom, not only for themselves, but for all.         

You don't have this courage. Few Americans do. And it's an insult to those of us who have the balls to actually defend something to be deluged by your idiotic, unoriginal and cowardly banterings day after day. It's an insult to listen to rednecks and schills ape the old adage that our soldiers have died for our freedom throughout American history and we should thank them. Our soldiers have never fought for anything but the property rights of the elites and are pathetic victims of an evil ruling class. Indeed the only examples we have of our troops being used in the battle for freedom are in an effort to suppress freedom to benefit the ruling class. The labor movement where protesters and union organizers were murdered by American troops while attempting to champion fair wages, safe working conditions, the forty hour week and the abolition of child labor are one example. The Civil Rights movement, the Free Speech movement and each and every attempt to gain freedom and equality for an oppressed minority or unpopular principle were met with violence from American soldiers.         

The worst insult is that we are told we should "Thank the troops for fighting for our freedom." The only people who owe the troops a thank you is the few who benefit financially from their occupation of a foreign country. My freedom has never been threatened by anyone but agents of the United States of America. It is the troops who owe those of us with the courage to challenge the system a thank you. We are fighting for their freedom and safety and a thank you would be appreciated.  
       
The closest thing American history can offer to an actual freedom fighter is comic book creator William Gaines. Ya, I said it. At a time when anyone who wouldn't get in lock step with the current regime and anyone even suspected of entertaining ideas not endorsed by the elite was blacklisted and ostracized there were only a few people with the balls to say anything. It's not much different today. In fact in many ways it's worse.         

Here's a few examples of the cowardly nature of the modern American and why I believe most of you haven't earned the right to express yourself freely and restriction of your freedoms would actually lead to more happiness for you. Some of you might remember there was a little incident in New York when "someone" knocked down a couple of building with aeroplanes. The culprits were quickly identified as Arab terrorists and an oil-rich nation was subsequently attacked. It was irrelevant  to Americans that the terrorists identified couldn't possibly have planned or executed the terrorist attack and all evidence indicated that American elites had planned the attack in order to invade a nation that contained oil resources they desired. Then despite the fact that the county designated for attack was not even purported to have been involved in the terrorist act United States troops invaded and destroyed the country. Ironically, many people in the Executive branch profited greatly by having vested interests in the companies that produced the armaments used to destroy the country and also the companies that were awarded no bid contracts to rebuild the country. They also made a few billion dollars on the oil they now pumped out of the country.         

Remember that? I do. Just like it was a few years ago. What I remember predominantly is that almost no one in America spoke out against the war or the invasion of Iraq or raised any questions about the actual perpetrators of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center or challenged the billions and billions of dollars of profit those who were in the Executive Branch made while American troops, primarily minorities and the lower classes, died to defend the oil fields.         

Remember that? Virtually no one raised their voice to protest or demand accountability. I must admit a few hippies and greenies and generally weirdos did take to the streets but their protests seemed more like block parties than real protests. Ninety-five percent of the people agreed with the war and it was literally dangerous to disagree with this violent majority. I remember this clearly. People were adamantly convinced the war in Iraq was the right thing to do and if you disagreed you put yourself in physical danger.         

I took the trouble to waste three paragraphs of your time to make the point clear: virtually no one spoke up after 9/11 or the invasion of Iraq to challenge the prevailing opinion. Recently that changed. It's all but impossible to find anyone who claims to have supported the war or now believes it to be a good idea. Now I'm no math genius but since I know 95% supported the war and that now no one claims to have supported the war someone is lying. Not lying about a golf score or their age or how much money they make but lying about surrendering their freedom and laying down to give the Elite the power and authority to 's sick. use the volunteer Armed Forces of the United States to invade a foreign country merely to make a profit for a small, inhuman elite.         

That's sick. And cowardly. I refer to the American public not the Reptilian pigs who engineered the disgrace. They have never been anything but what they are now. They did this right in the open and with a near unanimous outcry of approval from the American people. No one said shit and those who did were shouted down, threatened and labeled un- American and unpatriotic.         

Isn't irony a bitch? Four years later the stigma has been removed from questioning the war and now the floodgates of ignorance are open and the cowardly and gutless feel the entitlement to tell the few of us who resisted from the first how they always were on our side. I looked around briefly in 2003 to see who was on my side and I didn't see anyone. To have even questioned the Executive Branch in 2003 was thought of as treasoness, but four years later even the mainstream will now joyfully hop the bandwagon and join in the debate whether or not the American government bombed its own citizens in order to profit.         

So, back to my assertion: the power of free speech is only as good those who have the courage, power and willingness to say something of value and uniqueness. We don't have that in America. We have an abundance of clever smartasses who can say something witty and culturally relevant about just about anything. We have 25 million bloggers explicating and interpolating on every topic from Global Warming to stand up comedy. We have 24 hour news networks and political pundits spouting at all hours of the day and the internet and Google and newspapers and websites and think tanks. What we don't have is a corp group of courageous and capable patriots and intellectuals with the balls to ignore the group think that has pervaded American culture and tell the people you're all full of shit.         

Even if we did the voice of those patriots would be drowned out by the herd of sheep bleating out whatever position their captors force down their throats and spending their intellectual resources on debating who should be voted off American Idol this week. (Note to future generations: you'll have to Google American Idol to realize the full farce of how much time people wasted discussing it while their civilization withered).         

So, free speech has become tits on a nun. I watched while the Executive branch and their Reptilian masters suspended your Constitutional rights one by one and I waited for all the self-avowed patriots and freedomsties to say something. I read the full provisions of the Patriot act and waited for someone, anyone, to stand up and protest. I must admit numbness when I heard that habeus corpus had been repealed and that the goons of the state could invade my privacy anytime and unwarranted. It didn't matter to me anymore. Do you know why? I'll tell you. I've always been the person who eventually lost his freedom to defend someone elses. I've always known and accepted it was incumbent upon me and those few like me to stand up and defend something. What I have trouble accepting is how the rest of you have shirked your responsibility to defend your own freedom and cowered before the will of the state and all but surrendered everything but your right to agree with whatever enslavement is forced upon you.         

It is a shame that Americans continue to enjoy freedoms that they no longer deserve. America has proven that it doesn't value its freedoms enough to even speak up when they are taken away. The fourth Amendment can seem abstract until the morning you are awakened from sleep by agents of the state standing over you with guns drawn. After this the right to privacy tends to elicit a greater appreciation. The First Amendment can seem unassailable when everyone can spout out whatever thought comes to mind in forums and through technologies thought inconceivable only years ago. Consider the insulting possibility that what you are saying has neither the relevance, courage or gravity to merit even the passing disgust of another human being. Consider the stinging evaluation that at your best you pose no threat to the cabal of the elite. It will not be you who is forced to oppose the true enemies of freedom. It is not you who will be awakened in darkness. Go back to your computer and write something clever and innocuous about something clever and innocuous. Someone else will fight your battles.         

Freedom is enslavement. Those of us who bear the greatest burden of freedom, the inability to lie, to say black is white and white is black, will continue to wander and babble among babblers in the largest of prison of all. 

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