War does not determine who is right, only who is left. — Bertrand Russell
When we first started Supreme a few magical months ago, we spoke of how new media and consumer electronics are giving birth to a generation of kids who all think they’re correct.
On our blogs, we are kings, and we have the power to shape information in our own little kingdoms. It’s as easy as a click — “Delete comment,” and it’s done.
But this power is increasingly taking over the world in ways that it shouldn’t. George W. Bush says, “Either you’re with us or against us,” and the world that opposes him is a comment he is looking to delete.
Increasingly, in this country, too, there is an encroachment on ideas that go against status quo. You either march on the streets or contribute to “progress.” You’re either a communist or an upstanding citizen.
There is a drive against “unwanted comments”.This is the biggest war we face these days. The war against terror; the war against communism; the war against drugs; the war against “crippling” oppositionism — forget them. “A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny,” Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said around the turn of the century.
These days, these: In the United States, there is domestic spying, government-sponsored phone-taps, torture. In the Philippines, we have bribery, extra-judicial killings, poll fraud, warrantless arrests, attacks on media and free speech. (Google them)
Domestic tyranny is the war we face these days.
Our leaders are trying to tell us how to think. Because they, like the average blogger, think they’re absolutely right. “God put me here,” Gloria Arroyo once told Time Magazine.
But, “Every opinion now accepted was once eccentric,” philosopher Bertrand Russell once said. And dissent is the blood of change. George Owell: “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”
We must not let our leaders kill dissenting opinion. Whether we agree with these opinions or not.
This, after all, is the founding principle of democracy.
The world is not a blog. No one has the right to delete the comments within it.
So, there is a war. Will you stop it?