Nine months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 282. Yesterday, I talked about any situation being an opportunity to learn and grow. Today is a new day.
Censorship has always been something I've been against and has always been present in history. People don't like to see or hear what they don't agree with and think that things should be cast aside into the darkness for their own convenience. "For the greater good", yet this belief has always stemmed in selfishness and arrogance in my mind. Again, who are they to decide what's "good" for the world? We all have our subjective views that are an expression of who we are. To deny that is to deny expression. It is to deny individuality.
While there may be a lot of hate, misinformation, and other things that provide a good argument in favor of censorship, it's also preventing potentially helpful aids to our progress from ever being discovered because whomever is deciding who gets to see what may not even be fully aware of what they're doing. Having a system of censorship to me is like them having the hubris to think that they're incapable of making mistakes and that following their path will lead us to peace and salvation. That's absurd.
Whenever the topic of censorship comes up, I think of Chairman Mao Zedong's cultural "revolution" in China. Anyone remember Hitler and the Nazis? These sort of revolutions have happened time and again and have always resulted in a shit storm. Any great cause that started out as "for the greater good" when left unchecked and unopposed ends up being a ploy for someone or something to gain more power and influence over others. With the whole net neutrality fiasco going on, I see the same sort of thing happening all over again. Despite being told to learn from history and not repeat our mistakes, here we go again.
I think with the advent of widespread communication and easy access to information the freedom to express ourselves is more important than ever. I may not agree with what some people have to say, but the same applies with anything I say. Rather than trying to shut people down, just do your own thing. Not everyone is going to have the same views. That's why we're all different people. The day we're no longer able to be ourselves is the day we lose our humanity.
That's just my opinion though. What do you think?
Peace
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - VoltaireI watch a lot of content on youtube and in the last few years demonetization has become more of an issue for content creators as of late. While a lot of it is due to plagiarism, which I can understand, there is also a lot of good content out there being shut down because youtube doesn't "approve" of it. Because they think it's not "good" for people. But who are they to decide that? This made me think about censorship and its prevalence in the world.
Censorship has always been something I've been against and has always been present in history. People don't like to see or hear what they don't agree with and think that things should be cast aside into the darkness for their own convenience. "For the greater good", yet this belief has always stemmed in selfishness and arrogance in my mind. Again, who are they to decide what's "good" for the world? We all have our subjective views that are an expression of who we are. To deny that is to deny expression. It is to deny individuality.
While there may be a lot of hate, misinformation, and other things that provide a good argument in favor of censorship, it's also preventing potentially helpful aids to our progress from ever being discovered because whomever is deciding who gets to see what may not even be fully aware of what they're doing. Having a system of censorship to me is like them having the hubris to think that they're incapable of making mistakes and that following their path will lead us to peace and salvation. That's absurd.
Whenever the topic of censorship comes up, I think of Chairman Mao Zedong's cultural "revolution" in China. Anyone remember Hitler and the Nazis? These sort of revolutions have happened time and again and have always resulted in a shit storm. Any great cause that started out as "for the greater good" when left unchecked and unopposed ends up being a ploy for someone or something to gain more power and influence over others. With the whole net neutrality fiasco going on, I see the same sort of thing happening all over again. Despite being told to learn from history and not repeat our mistakes, here we go again.
I think with the advent of widespread communication and easy access to information the freedom to express ourselves is more important than ever. I may not agree with what some people have to say, but the same applies with anything I say. Rather than trying to shut people down, just do your own thing. Not everyone is going to have the same views. That's why we're all different people. The day we're no longer able to be ourselves is the day we lose our humanity.
That's just my opinion though. What do you think?
Peace
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| Expression is like color. If we're all the same then the world becomes bland. |
If you have any thoughts, stories, or experiences, share them in a comment below!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day~