Boarding the windows on freedom of speech
As the windows are boarded the light is dimmer, the shadows longer.
Hear nothing, say nothing, do nothing. They are boarding up the windows.As they are boarded the light is dimmer, the shadows longer.
Noam Chomsky is one of the great soothsayers of all time. He analyzes the present to see the future. It is a given the present is very much predictive of our future. What he says above deserves our very careful consideration for this is one of the stinging truths of our time. It has come upon us slowly over time as the ability to manipulate, control, and distribute information and misinformation has become global, very sophisticated and propagandist.
It is like the boarding of windows, one board, one nail, at a time so we don’t notice the impending darkness, the gradual eclipse of freedom of speech.
We live in the age of information where there is an over abundance of information and misinformation. There are monolithic powers deeply embedded in our societies who can control what we think and what we are allowed to say- they hide in plain sight.
As Chomsky suggests the debate can be lively and dissidence allowed, even encouraged, but only to a point to keep up appearances and the illusion of democracy and freedom.
Political power brokers know they only have to control about 65% of the population The other 35% doesn’t matter.
This is very true in Canada where the ruling Liberals have only 32% of the popular vote from the election in 2021. In every province and territory of the country almost 50% of the population did not vote. Because of our egregiously flawed electoral system the second place CPC party won 34% of the popular vote but with many fewer seats. And we call this representative government!
Populations are increasingly abandoned and disenfranchised and the distance between governments and the peoples becomes a growing chasm. On the one side government retreats into arrogant authoritarianism while populations retreat into sullen passivity, anger, fear and cynicism.
As the alienation deepens governments resort to more secrecy and mendacity. Freedom of speech is suppressed to maintain order. The windows are boarded up one board at a time.
Governments adopt a contemptuous pack mentality toward the populations they are supposed to serve while their actual allegiance is to the power elites controlling them. When is the last time you heard a prominent sitting politician appeal for peace and civility in what is a looming world crisis?
As Chomsky suggests the “range of the debate” becomes more and more narrow, as the boards go into place.
Where there is perpetual war and the chaos that ensues there is no debate. Suddenly freedom of speech becomes treason. Progress on pressing existential issues remain frozen in time.
One of Chomsky’s most famous books (co-authored with Edward S, Herman) is Manufacturing Consent published in 1988, updated in 2002. Today it is more relevant than when it was written. Consent is now assumed by the brazen arrogance of power elites as they pursue their naked agendas supported by a fawning media.
The book is a benchmark in how we have become Neo-feudalist societies, ruled and exploited by a smothering highly integrated political, media, and economic conglomerate.
As the windows are boarded the light is dimmer, the shadows longer.
We have reached the point where telling truth is punished, telling lies richly rewarded.