Inch By Inch.

     This little video should have gone with the previous article. It is a little demonstration how the slowly, slowly, principle works, and why we should always pay attention to those little changes in the way the state tries to govern us. Vigilance, critical thought and resistance, are the safeguards of freedoms, the few that we have, also the way to advance those freedoms. Thanks Loam for the link.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Freedom Of Thought!!

       Freedom of thought is a fundamental human right unimpeded by coercion or force of any kind. Or it should be, but this freedom is always under attack, words are a means of expressing that right of freedom of thought, but words are attacked and attempts made to remove certain words, political correctness, is one such attack, we lose words at our peril, words lost are a diminishing of the ability to express that "freedom of thought". Be very wary of those who tell you certain words are bad and should not be used.

Wikipedia:

       The Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that thought is inherently embedded in language, would support the claim that an effort to limit the use of words of language is actually a form of restricting freedom of thought.[citation needed] This was explored in George Orwell's novel 1984, with the idea of Newspeak, a stripped-down form of the English language alleged to lack the capacity for metaphor and limiting expression of original ideas.

      From Lucas Swaine Freedom of Thought as a Basic Liberty

      Freedom of thought has been lauded in political theory and celebrated in human rights discourse. But what kind of freedom is it? I propose that freedom of thought deserves status as a basic liberty, given the significance of thought to human life, the fundamental importance of freedom of thought in establishing and sustaining crucial rights and freedoms, and the value of being able to develop and experience one’s thoughts without undue influence from others. 

The usual words of calm wisdom from Not Buying Anything:

        Cars can be freedom machines in a way, I admit, and I have had my share of incredible moments blasting across the face of the Earth in a variety of internal combustion conveyances. But those days have been over for Linda and I since we began voluntarily limiting how much we used our vehicle. We made this decision as the rest of the world was speeding around a blind corner and on into the 2000s.
        Since then we been driving less and less and less. Overall, we have found it has not had a noticeable negative effect on our quality of life. That is because cars are sold as freedom machines, but they can only provide freedom of movement. What is the use of having an unlimited freedom to move, if we don't also have the unlimited freedom to think?
       Socrates knew that we cannot find ourselves without first thinking for ourselves. Without this freedom, we are lost.

So, do we have the freedom to think in our societies?

        Freedom of thought is the freedom to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of coercion or force to think differently.

That does not describe the world I know.

      Our freedom of expression has always been limited through censorship, arrests, book burning, and pervasive propaganda. This has destroyed any semblance of freedom of thought that we may feel we still have left.
      Educator John Dewey, himself a deep thinker, thought a lot about freedom of movement vs freedom to think, and this is what he said,

     "The only freedom that is of enduring importance is the freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment, exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worthwhile.
       The commonest mistake made about freedom is, I think, to identify it with freedom of movement, or, with the external or physical side of activity."

         While we have driven around our cultural obsession with cars and freedom of movement, we have found our grey matter has been thrown in the slammer. We didn't notice because we have been stuck in traffic.
In recent years I have been willing to give up a large part of my freedom of movement. However, I will not compromise my freedom to think for myself, something on which all other freedoms are based.
        You can't be yourself if you can't think for yourself. And if you can't be yourself, you can't be free.

Freedom of thought wins.

         The time I used to spend driving and being mobile, I now spend blasting around the infinite space between my ears. I would like this to continue, unimpeded by outside forces.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

All Guilty In The Eyes Of The State.

         Guilty, guilty, guilty, yes, you are all guilty. We no longer live in a society where, if you have done nothing wrong, you can go about your business free from surveillance. It is no longer a matter of the state watching the “bad guys”, you are all suspects. The minute you walk down the street, wait for a bus, buy a train ticket, walk into a pub, you are monitored. Stay at home, surf the net, follow social media, they know what your looking at, use your mobile and they know where you are, who you are contacting and when. The state and its institutions are working at total control, control over your every movement, why you are there, who are you with, should you be there, you are all suspects, to be watched and profiled. Let's not forget "stingray", a mobile or fixed apparatus that can suck up information from up to 10,000 mobile phones at one fell swoop, without you being aware. Your crime, moving about and interacting with people.  

       The state is always expanding the breadth and depth of its intelligence agencies, they are able to expand their information collection beyond actual suspects, to mass surveillance. Yes, no matter your life style, you are a suspect. DNA and other information can be shared between agencies, foreign and domestic, without you being aware, without you having done anything wrong. We live under a regime of stop-and-search, camera surveillance, face recognition, and profiling, at every turn. National security is used to put an ever more heavily armed presence on our streets, once there, they don’t ever go back in the box. Here in the UK, we now accept heavily armed police parading parts of our cities. Of course all the information collected by this stop and search, monitoring, profiling and camera surveillance and other spying techniques, will be used against those people who resist this growing strangle hold of the state over the population. The growing repressive state, spawned from the "national emergency" does not guarantee less terror attacks, quite the contrary. What it does guarantee is innocent sections of society excluded, and the protection of those with large financial interests, big business and government institutions. 

          Who can blame an entire population that is classed as suspect, to turn from passive bystander to perpetrator. I carry the blame, therefore, why not the spoils of the crime?

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk