SovereignLife Freedom Blog

It’s obvious that those who take it upon themselves to “govern” us don’t want us to know stuff – especially stuff that runs counter to their own schemes and grand designs.

I’m not sure why most of us put up with this crap, but we do.

Reminds me of watching a movie in Malaysia last year. The movie was rated R18 (for 18 years old and over). It was called “Lust, Caution” – a film from China set in pre-communist Shanghai. After sitting through it, I wondered why it had an R18 certificate – seeing as I could not discern anything warranting such a rating.

It was only after the movie, when I read a few reviews online, that I realised various scenes had been cut – sex scenes. I had been cheated! Of course, I wasn’t surprised because Malaysia is an Islamic country and censorship of “words” and “scenes” is rife.

But seriously, what made me angry was the idea behind censorship – that someone, somewhere is watching such movies and making decisions as to what other people should be allowed to watch. It wasn’t enough to restrict the film to over-18 year olds, but adding insult to injury, to remove the very scenes that perhaps suggested an over 18 rating in the first place!

Of course censorship of sex is one thing – and not my main concern. What is much more disturbing is censorship of information that our “leaders” don’t want us to know. We see this in any war. As soon as war breaks out, the media blackout follows – like night follows day. And soon we are watching “managed” news – news that has been filtered via the censor. For as they say, “truth is the first casualty of war”.

We saw this again recently, when Israeli commandos attacked the aid flotilla on its way to Gaza. I knew what to expect, and sure enough it happened. Even before landing on board the aid ships all communications had been blocked – so no one could actually report what was happening. Then, once aboard, the commandos literally stole all the passengers mobile phones, cameras and computers (and they still haven’t been returned) – in order to ensure no images of what was happening got out.

The next stage of this news management was to issue the “sanitised” version – those pictures doctored and altered by the aggressors.

Typical stuff. Always happens. Always will.

But once in a while, someone comes along – like Julian Assange of WikiLeaks who is what is termed a “whistleblower” – someone who takes a serious interest in exposing the information our leaders would prefer we didn’t know.

In an different way, General McChrystal has fallen on his sword for speaking out of turn – for letting slip the mantle of “certainty” and “agreement” that governments like to impose on their various agendas.

You see, the war in Afghanistan is going badly. In fact it’s a mess. But no government can admit it. And no one is allowed to suggest otherwise, especially someone from within government (military).

Whistleblowing is the cardinal sin.

Butler Shaffer has some interesting things to say about this in his article: Making it McChrystal Clear

P.S. As an interesting aside to the McChrystal affair, I recommend reading Paul Craig Robert’s commentary – Is Petraeus McChrystal’s Replacement or Obama’s?