#238: For What It's Worth

There’s something happening here.
What it is ain’t exactly clear.

I am well aware that this post will see me in a lot of trouble, but silence is the equal of complacency and to remain silent about some issues is to be seen to agree with those who demand people to follow blindly and agree with their every word, so here goes.

Tomorrow will see a public demonstration against the illegal incarceration of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  Right off the bat,  I'll be there.  For right or wrong, I'm a strong believer in the freedom of speech, and those who say that Wikileaks is endangering lives are forgetting that the actions, words and policies of those whose names are being revealed in these memos are the people who are truly putting people's lives at risk on a daily basis. We need freedom, we need to know the games, and the lies, that our Governments are playing and telling. We have a basic right, as people, who have elected our Governments worldwide, to know the depths of their skulduggery and antics.

In this day and age we'd never have known about anything such as Watergate as both Woodward and Bernstein would have been hounded, stalked and ultimately prosecuted for revealing 'state secrets' and thrown into the nearest jail.  Call it misdirection, call it false, call it what you want, it appears that all Assange has done was be stupid enough to fall for the oldest spy trick in the world - the classic Honey Trap.  For being strong enough not to speak out directly, but to provide a forum which allows those pulling strings to hang on their own words, he is being arrested and there are calls, from the lunatic fringe in the USA - and by lunatic fringe I am looking squarely at peanuts such as Sarah 'I can see Russia from here' Palin, Mark 'I like torture and illegally shooting people' Thiessen and pretty much anyone that works for Fox News, strong advocates for free speech that they all are.

In 1982 publication of the groundbreaking story V For Vendetta was undertaken. Author Alan Moore has appeared to have correctly predicted where the world was heading, in the same manner as George Orwell and Aldous Huxley did back in the 1940s and 1930s. Some of Moore's words ring truer now than they did back then. These are now words that I think we all should live by.  First and foremost, "People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."  If you have never read this brilliant story then you should - in the same manner as Brave New World, 1984 or Animal Farm, this book, complete with stunning images, will open your eyes in ways that you may not believe, and might find very confronting.  Forget the movie, that just scraped the surface.

"Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense." -- Alan Moore

"If you want to find someone to blame then throw a rock in the air, you're bound to hit someone guilty."  -- Bono

Our parents used the power of protest to gain some basic civil rights to let those in power know their disgust at their actions.  Our generation, and the one that has followed, has remained silent and complacent for far too long.   We need to learn the lessons that history can offer, and is through the power of the people, not by sabotage, subterfuge or via violent means, that change can be affected.  This is the time that we should all stand as one, stand together and simply say, "This is wrong, and I shan't tolerate it, nor shall I agree with it."

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." --Paddy Chayefsky

Paranoia strikes deep:
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you’re always afraid.
You step out of line, the man come and take you away. -- Stephen Stills