Lawfully Speaking, Vol. III, Issue No. 4
A Periodic Internet Political Column
Written by William H. Huff
"The most effectual engines for [pacifying a nation] are the public papers... [A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785. (*) ME 5:181, Papers 8:632
Here we see that Jefferson would have cringed at the notion of a politically correct press as the result of 200 years of so-called free government. He was revolted by the first appearances of government censorship and knew only too well where it would lead.
When we see or hear dissent our eyes and ears should be trained to look for a new invasion on our liberties. The current situation is especially alarming to those who realize gross abuses of civil liberty have become commonplace in our country already, and that without the notice of most well-fed, well-entertained American citizens. They prate about within the confines that have been defined for them - their own little sphere of 'enduring freedom' - little knowing they may become the next Thanksgiving Turkey for the New World Order.
When you see someone who has injured no one being severely browbeaten for their mere words please know you are looking into the jaws of impending civil and national disaster. The 'Brownshirts' cannot be far behind. When you are not so sure why your neighbor's door was kicked in you should be listening for the knock on yours.
The free movement of information, especially that critical of government officials, has already risen to the level of a crime in Communist China. Yet there are many ways to accomplish censorship. A political environment that allows information to flow freely, and yet not be dared to be constructively believed, seems entirely probable with the power of a controlled Media combined with domestic PsyOps by government agents and wide new pretended powers for surveillance directed toward American citizens.
Thomas Jefferson said "I cannot live without books." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1815. ME 14:301
Today I think he would say "Liberty cannot survive without an unfettered Internet." The most Stalinist members of the Chinese Communist Party believe that. Do you?