Freedom of Speech: Bothersome, but Valuable

I got carried away while writing my 'in the news' post for this week. That happens fairly often. This time, I'd gone off on a tangent about freedom of speech, American culture over the last half-century, and what happened when Information Age technology hit old-school autocratic regimes.

There seemed to be enough for another post, so I copied what I'd written, polished it off a little, and here it is:

Freedom of Speech, in Principle and Practice

The America I grew up in had constitutional guarantees of free speech.

In principle, this gave most citizens the ability to share their ideas with others.

In practice, a person was free to share ideas with family, neighbors, and co-workers. Reaching a wider audience usually meant going to one of the culture's information gatekeepers: a relatively small number of news and magazine editors; book publishers; entertainment producers; and educators.

If those information gatekeepers didn't what they saw, the idea stopped there. That's an over-simplification, and I've posed about information gatekeepers before. Fairly often, including:

• "Huckleberry Finn, [redacted] Jim, and Making Sense"
  (June 24, 2011)
• "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
  (April 1, 2010)
• "What is an Information Gatekeeper?"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (August 14, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Cultural Chaos! Divisiveness! I Like It!

McCarthyism, Political Correctness, and Deposed Autocrats

I remember the 'good old days,' when America was flushing McCarthyism out of its system. That, and the heyday of political correctness, together with having a pretty good memory, are reasons that I don't miss 'the good old days.'

I think McCarthyism was a bad idea. I think there really was a 'communist menace,' but by the time I started paying attention, it was hard to see through the psychological detritus, paranoia, and blacklists.

A few decades later, a different set of idealistic do-gooders gave us political correctness. With similar results. Like Fred Astaire sang, tomato, tomahto. I've been over this before:

• "My Take on the News: Jingle Bells, Jangled Nerves, and Good Advice"
  (December 16, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Fear and Control

Then the Internet started upsetting apple carts around the globe. Old-school autocrats in places like Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt would have died eventually: and eventually a successor would fail to maintain power. Instead, starting about a year ago, their regimes fell. I think Information Age technology, and the social structures developing around it, are at least partly responsible. (Another War-on-Terror Blog (December 30, 2011))

Getting Published, Then and Now

For folks who were on the same page as America's information gatekeepers, getting ideas circulated meant being a skillful writer or performer. And being in the right place, at the right time, with the right material.

Everyone else had to be very, very:

1. Skilled
2. Persistent
3. 'Lucky'
4. All of the above

There were ways around old-school editors and the establishment media, of course. I remember when the undeground press gave 'regular Americans' conniptions. Later, when 'the establishment' had changed, 'little old ladies in tennis shoes' used fax machines to 'deceive' The Masses. Or to get the truth out. Different folks saw that sort of thing in different ways.

It's Different, When You're In Charge

Quite a few of the campus radicals of my youth grew up, had successful careers in media and politics: and have been telling each other what they want to hear for decades.

The 'official' version of reality has had time to deviate quite a bit from what the rest of us live with. I think most folks are level-headed enough to tell the difference between ideologically-driven piffle and facts. Once we've had a chance to hear something besides what our 'betters' think is good for us, that is.

Many folks who aren't part of the 'in' group are probably doubting secular equivalents to the perennial 'End Times prophecy,' angst over spotted owls that can only live in virgin forests (and K-Mart signs), and nostalgic efforts to re-live the days of Stokely Carmichael. My opinion.

It's no wonder that America's (new) establishment fears open discussion and uncensored opinions online.

I don't, putting it mildly, agree with everything I see online. But I like living in a world where my 'betters' can't decide what I should and should not see. I've posted about this before, too:

• "SOPA, PIPA, and a Disapproving Rabbit"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (January 18, 2012)
• "Lemming Tracks: Internet Freedom; or 'Be Careful What You Wish For' "
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (April 19, 2011)
• "Modernism, Luddites, Catholicism, and Godzilla"
  (April 7, 2011)
• "Lemming Tracks: Blasphemy! Or, 'We're All Gonna Die' Predictions That Fizzled"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (December 30, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Problems? Yes - Panic? No
  • "A Catholic Blogger In the Digital Continent"
    (November 15, 2010)

Background:

• "Egypt's revolution, one year on"
  Roger Hardy, BBC News (January 24, 2012)
  
• "Egypt's Mubarak: End of the great survivor"
  BBC News (February 11, 2011)