The Freedom to Choose
"Freedom” is meaningless if one doesn’t know what the options are -- or the choices one could be making -- if one had all the information. Even in rigid despotisms, they still claim to have “free elections” -- because everybody is free to vote for the one choice on the ballot, and if one exercises his right not to, it is their choice to have their head or hands chopped off, but nobody can say they’re not “free.”
So the word “free,” may mean nothing at all, just as all words are not the thing itself. A lot of people are mesmerized by their own words, and the words of others -- without any correspondent connection to any reality. These are the people arguing vehemently that every thought is only an opinion -- and so it doesn’t matter what one believes, as long as they can get others to believe it also -- as the ultimate arbiter of reality and sanity.
And so from day to day, one thing has no connection to any other -- it is all just what one says because that’s what one can get away with today before it is forgotten tomorrow. This is familiar as the “news” culture -- as things having reality only for that moment, and beyond that, is denied and disclaimed in favor of today’s news -- which is their only reality.
That was the mass media culture of the previous consciousness before there was virtual information and memory -- and that memory was controlled by those who “produced” the news. It’s all pretty insidious -- as more details come to light in an age of virtual information, in which information is no longer controlled by those who would like to be powerful and influential people.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that -- as in anything, there will always be natural leaders and talented people -- even without the ambition to be so. In fact, the most gifted, will never have an ambition to be anything other than they are -- and know themselves to be.
The lesser talents will wonder what and who it is they truly are -- without that confidence to be whatever they are. That is one of the great torments in living in a world of constant exposure to those of freakish abilities one might not ordinarily and frequently encounter.
Constant exposure to television makes one grow up thinking they also have the abilities of the most gifted in that field -- because they make it look so easy. But then one tries it themselves and the results are something else. One doesn’t know that because they have never seen anything else -- other than what is portrayed in that media and so are shocked when ventures fail and things do not go as guaranteed by the demagogues (con-artists).
Intelligent choices are made when people know the many different possibilities and consequences of their actions -- and are not just what one person would like everybody else to believe.
posted by Mike Hu @ 9:51 AM
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4 Comments:
"Freedom of information" discussions at the legislature are really the opposite of what that title would imply -- as it is invariably about the control of information and who gets to control it.
There are innumerable restrictions and rules on campaign spending -- but virtually none on freedom of expression. That obviously, is the direction a campaign ought to be heading -- as a perpetual, virtual campaign, rather than the typical fund-raising paradigm.
One can either create the reality -- or only create the image of that reality, but the formerr costs one nothing. It simply is who one really is -- which may be the most revolutionary act of these times.
Creating an image of something other than that, requires money. In time though, one is usually revealed for who one really is. For most, that usually doesn't take very long -- to be a walking contradiction of everything they want others to believe about themselves -- as though they have no understanding of what they are talking about, but think saying the "right" words are enough to obtain whatever magical qualities they have intoned.
Most public writing and speaking has that quality -- of not really intending to communicate anything but just giving the impression that they "tried." So it's your fault if you don't understand what it is they were trying to say. They did their 10% -- and that's all they are required to do, to satisfy the letter of the law.
Thereafter, all laws are devoid of the spirit for which it was intended, arbitrary and who knows best how to play the system -- as though that was the only "choice" possible.
Ironically, one of the most compelling of choices is to give up one's right to speak for oneself -- as people do when they join "unions," and then wonder why they no longer have that power for themselves -- and that somebody else, has that right for everybody else to speak as their dictator.
That has largely been the threat to freedom in America.
"The king is dead; long live the king!"
While there might have been change, it was still a monarchy, and real change would have to wait until people declared, "People have power because we give them power, but if we no longer allow them that power, they have none." They have no divine right to it.
That is the basis of republics and Republicanism -- that the power resides in the people, and not the government. This is a critical concept in this time in which some think all power resides in the government -- and of course, government workers who usurp these powers and think that the sole purpose of government is to provide for their own benefits and permanent advantages.
That form of government is called an oligarchy -- government for the benefit of a few, who entrench themselves at the top. However, the emerging reality of our times is that government becomes less a dominant part of one's life. Even Karl Marx recognized that as the ultimate achievement of Socialism, that government eliminated itself after people were transformed into enlightened, benevolent citizens.
That transformation is more likely to come as a consequence of adapting to an ever-changing world that requires one to relearn everything they learned in school, pretty nearly constantly because it is to their advantage to do so to take advantage of the great discoveries and innovations that they just need to be aware of.
There was a time in hich people learned things once that could serve them their whole lifetime but that reality has already changed to reveal that learning has to be more than just the first time institutional experience of the past -- after which most people could stop learning.
It still is wise not to learn all those things others want us to in their indoctrination and exploitation of us -- but being able to identify those proper opportunities to optimize our lives, is everyone's quite natural desire to do, and only needs not to be discouraged, suppressed and oppressed by those who want to be "in charge" of such matters.
Everyone has that right -- to be in charge of their own lives. Those rights and responsibilities are the fulfillment of each life.
Since this blog was created for the purpose of advancing my candidacy in a past election, people wonder why it did not disappear after the elections were over.
I realized then that as a true representative of choice, that choice should not just disappear once the elections were over but continue to be articulated, if that was really the proper thinking in the first place.
The truth is not invalid because it is not recognized by everyone as the truth. It is far more likely to be that the truth will be recognized properly only by a few -- who are on the cutting edge of those changes.
So more than winning every vote, I thought what was most important, was to win the best vote -- of having the best person in government, as the "right choice."
Most of the typical discussions center around that of partisanship and numbers -- rather than who has the best ideas, and not just the most politically popular ones.
Unpopular ideas have a tendency to stand the test of time and become popular eventually -- while the many popular ideas of their day are revealed to be the delusions of mass manipulation they most are resigned to allow the politicians and media to play with themselves, and argue over, and increasingly, tune them out. That is evident in the turnout and interest in elections and politics -- which is not necessarily a bad sign, but indicative of present realities.
Despite the fact that the wrong things are reported on that exacerbate this disinterest and the decline of the mainstream (mass) media, the fact is that we do have a few extraordinary people heading both the governorship of Hawaii and the presidency of the United States -- no matter how relentlessly the demagogues in the media, legislature and congress insist they are "smarter" than and government would be so much better if they were in-charge.
I think "government" participation and "representation" has come to be something much greater than simply elections and their resulting legislative votes. Goverrnance in life is far more than that -- including the recognition of information and its context to provide guidance beyond the laws. That doesn't mean that we show ignore all the laws and authority, but also look beyond -- to the greater common sense and human values that transcends the laws, and moves faster than the legislative process.
All that is lumped generically into the concept of freedom of expression -- that people have a right to be -- without first seeking approval and permission, as their highest right as human beings.
The objective is not winning or losing votes -- but expressing one's highest truth in whatever forum and activity one participates in -- all one's life. For a rare few, that will mean becoming the governor or president -- but each can serve in their own way, and has a right and responsibility to -- no matter how much the powers that want to be, suppress, repress and oppress them.
http://newsbusters.org/node/14086
Record Dow a Downer on the Networks
Posted by Julia A. Seymour on July 13, 2007 - 18:16.
A new stock market high is good news, right?
“In stock market terms alone, this is now the longest consecutive uninterrupted stock market rally,” said Lawrence Kudlow on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on July 13.
“It started in early 2003, so that’s four and a half years. And it’s incredible how much wealth is being created out there and it’s unfortunate, really – almost tragic – that the president just doesn’t get any credit for it at all because he’s got a lot to say on the economy.”
While Kudlow found the record worth cheering, the three major networks supplied "some worries" and "some dark clouds" to viewers on July 12. Each one offered its own spin of gloomy news following the record high closings of the Dow and S&P 500.
"There are still some dark clouds looming over this market," said correspondent Dan Harris on ABC’s "World News with Charles Gibson." "The housing market is in a slump, interest rates are rising and gas prices are ticking back up."
But of course, CBS had its own take on the news and could not be outdone.
"There are still some worries out there," said CBS correspondent Anthony Mason on "Evening News." "The housing market is still slumping. We’ve had close to a million foreclosures since January."
And not wanting to be left out was NBC "Nightly News."
“[W]e’ve heard this good news on Wall Street,” said “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams. “It is despite the fact that a lot of homeowners in this country are under tremendous stress right now. According to RealityTrac (sic) [RealtyTrac], that’s a company that sells mortgage data, foreclosures across the country are up a staggering 87 percent over this very same time last year.”
All this bad news accompanied the stock market's largest gain in nearly four years.
Downplaying good economic news, especially the stock market is nothing new to the network news. Reporters have a history of pressing other economic factors like gas prices and housing, then threaten these pressures would sink the economy.
Fox News Channel host Neil Cavuto devoted a portion of his July 13 program to viewers complaining about media outlets that had ignored or downplayed the historic stock market high.
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