Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Free Speech Zones.. Only In America..

Well, not only in America. Venezuela maybe? North Korea, China, and all of the countries where human rights are low on the agenda?

A 'Free Speech Zone' is an area that your local police department has set aside as being a safe place for you to speak freely. It will be set aside from the 'Free Speech Zone', maybe even hidden from general view.

Why two 'Free Speech Zones'? Simply because there is 'Free Speech' and there is 'Free Speech'. I can hear you say that 'Free Speech' is 'Free Speech', and you would be right on all counts.

Your government grants you 'Free Speech'. You feel better because of it. 'Free Speech' is good, and it is your constitutional right.

To get into a 'Free Speech Zone', you need to be in possession of something that makes a statement. You can wear something that has a slogan imprinted on it, or carry a flag or placard. The message being projected by any of these means will determine whether you get access to the 'Free Speech Zone' or the 'Free Speech Zone'.

Hmmmm. The constitutional right to 'Free Speech' is not what a 'Free Speech Zone' is all about. Remember the 'Animal Farm' wall slogan? 'All animals are equal'. The wall slogan was extended later to include 'but some animals are more equal that others'. The US concept of 'Free Speech' works in much the same way, where 'Free Speech is good, but some 'Free Speech' is better than other 'Free Speech'.

Content is what determines whether you are ushered to a 'Free Speech Zone' or a 'Free Speech Zone'. In the event that 'Free Speech' might not televise too well, or maybe give a bad impression to a public reasonably convinced that they have the right to 'Free Speech', your 'Free Speech Zone' will be set at a safe distance and out of camera view. Determined efforts at 'creating a bad impression' generally result in being moved to a far more claustrophobic 'Free Speech Zone', often with no view to the outside at all.

Countries not having formally designated 'Free Speech Zones' include Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

All of the above countries have laws in place to limit damage should they feel the need but, at the same time, they do not deliberately lie to the people about how free they are either. People in the above countries receive a much broader education that allows them to gauge their own personal freedom against the freedom of others. They are educated to think 'outside the box', not blindly accept the contents as being the 'be all and end all'

Wake up, America. The world needs you, but not in your present form.

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