A dictator shuts down the press. In a democracy, though, you cannot outlaw a free press. But, you can seek to discredit it. You can lobby with the public to not listen to it. You can shout that it is full of lies.
"Don't listen to them. Listen only to me."
I have long had a saying: Truth doesn't run from knowledge. I think of President Trump, and how he fights against the press, and how this amounts to running from knowledge.
The mass media has many members. I do not doubt they influence each other. I do not doubt there can be a pack mentality. But, they remain many voices. And, I see in them people who seek the truth, who want to tell the truth. Would we silence the mass of their voices to listen only to the few who remain in good favor with government?
If you say, "Don't belief in the mass media," what are you saying? Those in the media strive for honesty and integrity. Why the crusade against them? What is it about the press, that prompts Donald Trump to campaign against it?
Now, if the media members are saying good things about you, you aren't going to try to shut them down. But, if they dare say something bad? Should you then lobby the people not to believe them?
It should not go unnoticed on us, then, that Trump is fighting a press that is not saying all warm and fuzzy things about him.
If a nation is ruled by a king, no voice of criticism is allowed. "Hail the king," is the only voice. In America, though, it doesn't work that way. So, in America, if you are to try to silence the press, how far can you go?
This might be about as close as you can get.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
Mr. Merrill's History Lesson
"Today, one of the most important lessons in all of history," Mr. Merrill announced to the class.
They looked back at him, waiting to hear what such a marvelous lesson would be.
"The story of the Revolution? The story of the Civil War? Or any of the other wars?" Mr. Merrill said. "Or, am I going to tell you the story of George Washington, or of John F. Kennedy? Or, maybe it isn't about wars and presidents, at all. Maybe it is about inventors and scientists -- the stories of Edison and Einstein."
The class waited, wondering what Mr. Merrill was going to say was equal to all those stories.
"The Salem Witch Trials," the middle-aged teacher said. He paused a moment, then continued. "Before, I get started, I want to explain why the Salem Witch Trials are perhaps as important of a history lesson as you will ever get from me. There is a saying. Perhaps you've heard it. 'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' "
He looked around the class, seeing he had everyone's attention.
"And, the reason the Salem Witch Trials make for such an important lesson?" Again, he paused, then sighed. "I confess, as a teacher, I find I like to give lessons you can learn from -- lessons that society should be learning from. Oh, it is wonderful to read about the great events. But, the really wonderful lessons are the ones we can rip right out of the history books and apply in our lives."
He smiled. He picked up the history book, and turned to pages 21-23. Carefully, he ripped the pages right out of the book, and threw them like a Frisbee at the class. "I want these pages to leave the book, and join you in your everyday lives. I want you to take the story of the witch trials, and place it right in your lives -- as real as if right in this room with you."
Another pause.
"Students, I want you to consider all the news of the day, consider on all the issues, all that is happening . . .
"And, tell me if, in some ways, we are not the same as the same as those who hanged "witches" back in 1692 and 1693. Now, we don't like to think of ourselves as being as bad as those folks back then. We can see that what they did was clearly wrong, and we don't begin to imagine ourselves as being anything like them. . . .
"But, are we?"
His eyes swept the room.
"Is there anything in today's newspapers that hints of hysteria towards some people?" He picked a newspaper off his desk and held it up. Are there any stories about the populace being worked up in a frenzy against others? Now, I don't know if any of the 'witches' they executed were harmful, but I'm thinking they weren't. The folks of Salem and the towns there about, took normal-enough and harmless-enough people . . . and decided they were harmful.
"Can we pick up the today's newspapers, and read of any place where some people are being ruled as being harmful to others? Because, if we can, we better be making sure those people really are harmful -- or, we are no better than the people of Salem and its surrounding towns.
"Cut from the same cloth."
Mr. Merrill looked around the class, this time, his pause even longer. He sighed, closed his eyes so tight that tears almost squeezed out, then looked back up at his class. "If you look close enough, you will see this playing out again and again in our own modern society. We still take people, and falsely accuse them. We still work up a hysteria of hate against them. We still say there is so much evidence against them -- when, there isn't. We still make monsters out of people when they are not.
"Now, have you ever heard of a hanging judge? Those who convicted the 'witches' back in 1692 and 1693 were surely that. They got it in their minds that these 'witches' were guilty -- and they hanged them.
"Are you any better? Are you a handing judge? If you get it in your mind that someone is harmful or wicked -- when they are not -- if you let the hysteria of society whip you up in judgment against someone else . . . "
Mr. Merrill walked down an aisle and picked up the pages he had ripped from the history book. He took some tape and taped them back in his book. He would need them for future lessons. He closed the book and put it on the shelve.
"Then," he said, "the pages of this history book remain closed to you. It's as if you haven't even opened the book."
They looked back at him, waiting to hear what such a marvelous lesson would be.
"The story of the Revolution? The story of the Civil War? Or any of the other wars?" Mr. Merrill said. "Or, am I going to tell you the story of George Washington, or of John F. Kennedy? Or, maybe it isn't about wars and presidents, at all. Maybe it is about inventors and scientists -- the stories of Edison and Einstein."
The class waited, wondering what Mr. Merrill was going to say was equal to all those stories.
"The Salem Witch Trials," the middle-aged teacher said. He paused a moment, then continued. "Before, I get started, I want to explain why the Salem Witch Trials are perhaps as important of a history lesson as you will ever get from me. There is a saying. Perhaps you've heard it. 'Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' "
He looked around the class, seeing he had everyone's attention.
"And, the reason the Salem Witch Trials make for such an important lesson?" Again, he paused, then sighed. "I confess, as a teacher, I find I like to give lessons you can learn from -- lessons that society should be learning from. Oh, it is wonderful to read about the great events. But, the really wonderful lessons are the ones we can rip right out of the history books and apply in our lives."
He smiled. He picked up the history book, and turned to pages 21-23. Carefully, he ripped the pages right out of the book, and threw them like a Frisbee at the class. "I want these pages to leave the book, and join you in your everyday lives. I want you to take the story of the witch trials, and place it right in your lives -- as real as if right in this room with you."
Another pause.
"Students, I want you to consider all the news of the day, consider on all the issues, all that is happening . . .
"And, tell me if, in some ways, we are not the same as the same as those who hanged "witches" back in 1692 and 1693. Now, we don't like to think of ourselves as being as bad as those folks back then. We can see that what they did was clearly wrong, and we don't begin to imagine ourselves as being anything like them. . . .
"But, are we?"
His eyes swept the room.
"Is there anything in today's newspapers that hints of hysteria towards some people?" He picked a newspaper off his desk and held it up. Are there any stories about the populace being worked up in a frenzy against others? Now, I don't know if any of the 'witches' they executed were harmful, but I'm thinking they weren't. The folks of Salem and the towns there about, took normal-enough and harmless-enough people . . . and decided they were harmful.
"Can we pick up the today's newspapers, and read of any place where some people are being ruled as being harmful to others? Because, if we can, we better be making sure those people really are harmful -- or, we are no better than the people of Salem and its surrounding towns.
"Cut from the same cloth."
Mr. Merrill looked around the class, this time, his pause even longer. He sighed, closed his eyes so tight that tears almost squeezed out, then looked back up at his class. "If you look close enough, you will see this playing out again and again in our own modern society. We still take people, and falsely accuse them. We still work up a hysteria of hate against them. We still say there is so much evidence against them -- when, there isn't. We still make monsters out of people when they are not.
"Now, have you ever heard of a hanging judge? Those who convicted the 'witches' back in 1692 and 1693 were surely that. They got it in their minds that these 'witches' were guilty -- and they hanged them.
"Are you any better? Are you a handing judge? If you get it in your mind that someone is harmful or wicked -- when they are not -- if you let the hysteria of society whip you up in judgment against someone else . . . "
Mr. Merrill walked down an aisle and picked up the pages he had ripped from the history book. He took some tape and taped them back in his book. He would need them for future lessons. He closed the book and put it on the shelve.
"Then," he said, "the pages of this history book remain closed to you. It's as if you haven't even opened the book."
Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Salem, Circa 1693, has a Message for America, Circa 2019
If history is to be learned from, it must be applied to the things we are living through today. So, take the Salem Witch Trials, and how a group of people were accused of being that which they weren't, and how the populace then got rid of them. Could we find any parallel in America today?
If those who were executed were, indeed, witches and warlocks, by chance, I only propose they were not so dangerous as everyone imagined.
Yes, think of it: The populace back then got worked into a hysteria about these people, calling them all witches and warlocks, and got rid of them. I believe something like 200 were accused and 19 killed in those Salem Witch Trials.
To make it safer for the rest of society, of course.
That was America, circa 1693. Now, take American, circa 2019: Is there any place where the populace is being whipped into frenzy against a group of people who are made out to be a threat to society? You don't find any news stories fitting that description, do you? Any place where, say, common-to-poor people just wanting to make better lives for themselves are being painted as gangsters and terrorists and murderers?
Of course we should learn from history. But, if we are not willing to see where the lesson applies -- where it is playing out in modern events -- we will not learn from our past. We will end up getting rid of people who are not so scary as they are made out to be.
History is never learned from if you are too blind to see how its shadow crosses into your own day.
If those who were executed were, indeed, witches and warlocks, by chance, I only propose they were not so dangerous as everyone imagined.
Yes, think of it: The populace back then got worked into a hysteria about these people, calling them all witches and warlocks, and got rid of them. I believe something like 200 were accused and 19 killed in those Salem Witch Trials.
To make it safer for the rest of society, of course.
That was America, circa 1693. Now, take American, circa 2019: Is there any place where the populace is being whipped into frenzy against a group of people who are made out to be a threat to society? You don't find any news stories fitting that description, do you? Any place where, say, common-to-poor people just wanting to make better lives for themselves are being painted as gangsters and terrorists and murderers?
Of course we should learn from history. But, if we are not willing to see where the lesson applies -- where it is playing out in modern events -- we will not learn from our past. We will end up getting rid of people who are not so scary as they are made out to be.
History is never learned from if you are too blind to see how its shadow crosses into your own day.
Help me, if you can
Help me, if you will
Searching for the Deep State
Searching for it still
Just tell me where you find it
Tell me what you know
Any friend can tell me
I'm searching high and low
Point to evidence
Point to points of fact
Tell me what the truth is
And how I should react
Whatever is this Deep State?
Should I fear it for my life?
Is it the cause or freedom lost?
Or just all the nation's strife?
Tell me, tell me, tell me
I guess I need to know
If there is a Deep State
And how it came to grow
Witch Hunts and Chasing Ghosts are Going on in America Today
If you chase demons where demons don't exist, you chase ghosts. I have considered America, and the hatred of Hillary Clinton and of Barack Obama. I have considered on how George Soros is said to be the Anti-Christ.
I called up a video of Soros. Watched it. Was convinced he is someone who seeks good. Let him be an atheist or agnostic -- that does not make him evil. I read of his creating the Open Societies Foundations and how those foundations oppose authoritarian government. I consider this a better life's cause than what most of the rest of us have.
And, in a man like this, we find our Anti-Christ? If we chase him as the Anti-Christ, we chase a ghost. If we disagree with him for funding marijuana initiatives, that's fine -- that's living in reality -- but, if we suggest he is the Anti-Christ?
I must wondered at such myths of hatred, and how society arrives at them. How can we believe such -- well -- nonsense?
Consider this: If we knew a person who looked into the shadows of the night and saw monsters coming after him, would we want that person for our next president or congress member? Well, if we see Soros as the Anti-Christ, we are seeing a ghost, we are seeing a monster where a monster doesn't exist.
One, we are falsely judging another person. Two, we are bearing false witness. Three, if we pass along such a belief and persuade others it is true, we are helping drive this nation insane.
Insanity can exist as much in a nation as it can in a person. If a nation believes in ghosts, why is that not insanity?
And, if it believes in things that are unreal, it will govern out of a fear for them. Its monsters will dictate its policies. It will govern out of a sense of fear. Just as a child afraid of the dark reacts to those fears, so will a government afraid of a different type of ghosts run from them.
Remember the days of burning witches at the stake? I do not know whether some of them were actual ghosts, but I am certain there were some witches who were harmless and were burned in vain.
The society that burned them was a society insane. So, yes, I would suggest communities and nations can go insane, same as individuals. The witch-burning community looked into the shadows and saw monsters and ghosts. It governed out of a sense of fear, fear of its monsters and ghosts, and got rid of them.
I will wonder at America. I will wonder if it hasn't become such a nation. Look down at our southern border. Look at the poor and impoverished coming from Central America. We look into the dark of the border, into the shadows of night, and we see ISIS and monsters.
Now, I do not know but what some of those coming from Central America will surely turn out to be criminals. Indeed, to suppose thousands would come and none be a criminal is a little much. But, to look into the faces of all these common poor people, fleeing from bad situations in life and see only ISIS and MS-13ers?
That's to see monsters and ghosts.
President Trump has made much of the investigation against him being a witch hunt. I cannot but think of how in the early colonization of America, we got rid of some people because they were witches and warlocks.
A witch hunt? Where, then? Is it down on our southern border? Think of the early days in our colonization, and how we got rid of people accused of being witches and warlocks. Today, we get rid of people accused of being ISIS and MS-13. Where is the witch hunt today?
Just as those colonizers governed out of a sense of fear -- fear of witches and warlocks -- so we are governing out of a fear for those who are immigrants.
If it is ghosts who chase you, it will be ghosts you run from.
I called up a video of Soros. Watched it. Was convinced he is someone who seeks good. Let him be an atheist or agnostic -- that does not make him evil. I read of his creating the Open Societies Foundations and how those foundations oppose authoritarian government. I consider this a better life's cause than what most of the rest of us have.
And, in a man like this, we find our Anti-Christ? If we chase him as the Anti-Christ, we chase a ghost. If we disagree with him for funding marijuana initiatives, that's fine -- that's living in reality -- but, if we suggest he is the Anti-Christ?
I must wondered at such myths of hatred, and how society arrives at them. How can we believe such -- well -- nonsense?
Consider this: If we knew a person who looked into the shadows of the night and saw monsters coming after him, would we want that person for our next president or congress member? Well, if we see Soros as the Anti-Christ, we are seeing a ghost, we are seeing a monster where a monster doesn't exist.
One, we are falsely judging another person. Two, we are bearing false witness. Three, if we pass along such a belief and persuade others it is true, we are helping drive this nation insane.
Insanity can exist as much in a nation as it can in a person. If a nation believes in ghosts, why is that not insanity?
And, if it believes in things that are unreal, it will govern out of a fear for them. Its monsters will dictate its policies. It will govern out of a sense of fear. Just as a child afraid of the dark reacts to those fears, so will a government afraid of a different type of ghosts run from them.
Remember the days of burning witches at the stake? I do not know whether some of them were actual ghosts, but I am certain there were some witches who were harmless and were burned in vain.
The society that burned them was a society insane. So, yes, I would suggest communities and nations can go insane, same as individuals. The witch-burning community looked into the shadows and saw monsters and ghosts. It governed out of a sense of fear, fear of its monsters and ghosts, and got rid of them.
I will wonder at America. I will wonder if it hasn't become such a nation. Look down at our southern border. Look at the poor and impoverished coming from Central America. We look into the dark of the border, into the shadows of night, and we see ISIS and monsters.
Now, I do not know but what some of those coming from Central America will surely turn out to be criminals. Indeed, to suppose thousands would come and none be a criminal is a little much. But, to look into the faces of all these common poor people, fleeing from bad situations in life and see only ISIS and MS-13ers?
That's to see monsters and ghosts.
President Trump has made much of the investigation against him being a witch hunt. I cannot but think of how in the early colonization of America, we got rid of some people because they were witches and warlocks.
A witch hunt? Where, then? Is it down on our southern border? Think of the early days in our colonization, and how we got rid of people accused of being witches and warlocks. Today, we get rid of people accused of being ISIS and MS-13. Where is the witch hunt today?
Just as those colonizers governed out of a sense of fear -- fear of witches and warlocks -- so we are governing out of a fear for those who are immigrants.
If it is ghosts who chase you, it will be ghosts you run from.
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