Monday, July 22, 2013
Page 4
LAND OF THE FREE?
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Overbearing government limits freedoms
I don't think I want to be a journalist. Free speech is becoming less a right and more a privilege. Questioning the government makes you a liability and a target, and that makes me incredibly uncomfortable.
I think it's telling that as I sat down to write this column there was this nagging fear in the back of my mind saying that if this piece is seen by the wrong person or in the wrong context, I could be put on a list. It would be the kind of list that deters employers or puts a big red flag by my name at the airport.
Terrifying because I've read this all before in "1984" and "Brave New World" and every other dystopian knock-off from the last fifty years. I've read the same process of turning citizens against one another, nightly
I'm not saying I'm some heroic activist or dissident for writing this. I'm saying that an attitude of fear for a watchful and suspicious government is already growing. And I'm having a terrifying sense of déjà vu.
curfews, and radical jingoism so many times that it feels like, in 2013 America, we're just going through the motions.
They were good reads but I'd like to leave that stuff in books.
When we talk about political reporting, it's not simply about having Matt Taibis and Helen Thomas prod the feds every once in a while. It's about having a community where citizens are allowed to question the actions of their government without being condemned and defamed.
It's happened before with Julian Assange and it's happening right now
with Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning. They start out as citizen heroes, turn into pitiful fools, and end as traitorous bastards who should have stayed silent. Just watch how the media gradually shifts their characterization of Snowden in the coming weeks.
Whether or not there are individuals around to expose them, there will always be evil corporations slowly melting our brains with subliminal messaging and candy bars. It wasn't even all that shocking when the NSA was exposed because it's the expectation that those in power will abuse it.
What won't be guaranteed is the ability to check and balance those organizations. Washington no longer sees an informed public as a mechanism for a healthy democracy but as a safety concern.
If we don't constantly engage and demand answers from our government, we become a big body of tax cows funding the next weapon to end all wars. Speaking up is just getting in the
way. Free speech is dangerous. Liberties and rights are secondary. Moo.
I think the worst part is that I don't really know what to do. I'm not prepared to break into Capitol Hill, riffle through cabinets of documents stamped "CONFIDENTIAL", and expose the Men In Black as being real. I don't even know where to begin with Manning and Snowden. It's so far over all of our heads that the best we can do is wring our hands and stutter about the First Amendment.
I'm still not sure if I want to be a journalist. The survival rate is diving, there was never any money in it to begin with, and it seems that people these days just draw the curtains and watch Netflix.
Maybe I'll tough it out. I may not know what to do but I do know that I'm not content with "Life, Certain Liberties, and a Closely Monitored Pursuit of Government-Approved Happiness"
Kenney is a sophomore from Leawood.
THE TRUTH
Stop getting lied to, start asking questions
There was once an Emperor who was promised a suit by two swindlers that was of such high quality it was invisible to those unfit for their jobs. As one might expect, the subjects of the Emperor pretend to see it to save face. Finally, a child, too young to realize the charade, loudly proclaims 'he isn't wearing anything at all!' The Emperor's New Clothes is one of the most ubiquitous pieces of social commentary still applicable in the modern day. The story highlights two problems facing society: people who don't ask questions, and those who refuse to do it to save face. We face a similar problem it today's society. As deception expert Pamela Meyer describes, 'Lying is a cooperative act. You were lied to because you agreed to get laid to.' Indeed, far too many people fail to question the claims they here by word of mouth.
Hookah is harmless - the water filters out all the 'bad stuff'. Sounds good, right? Sitting in a sauna for an
Unfortunately, this isn't the case. Water isn't a filter. Sweating doesn't burn calories. A lack of sugar doesn't mean there aren't other harmful substitutes. Indeed, there is a glaring disconnect between how these claims sound with their legitimacy. We are too easily swayed by what sounds like a plausible, scientific explanation. Because our threshold for credible scientific
hour burns hundreds of calories by "sweating it out." Sounds scientific to me! I can drink diet soda while I'm on a diet because diet is in the name, and it has no sugar. Cheers!
evidence is so low, we never think to question "conventional wisdom." This is first modern day application of the folktale mentioned above - those who don't ask questions out of instinct.
The second group of people refuse to do so based on a much more sinister social construct. Sometimes, we smell a sham before it's even uttered, but we fail to vocalize. We collude with it, like the subjects of the emperor, in order to save face. This mostly occurs when people are pressured into risky behaviors under the assumption that it is safe, usually based on some asinine explanation. Resisting peer pressure is hard enough, and can be nearly impossibly to fight when the individual looks like the uninformed one for passing on the opportunity. People have been indoctrinated into a society that looks upon curiosity and skepticism with disdain and intolerance.
But there is a way out of the morass. The reason misnomers maintain their
powerful vise-grip on your thought is simply due to a lack of information. Therefore, I suggest that people ask more questions. A simple Google search (or Google Scholar search for the extremely skeptical/paranoid) will yield more than enough information to make an informed decision. However, the problem is, when you bear the burden of this paradigm, you quickly will become a jaded, bitter husk of your naïve self. You will realize that you are living and breathing in half-truths, double speak, and harebrained explanations. But nonetheless, this lifestyle is holistically edifying. Remember, because lying is a cooperative act, you have the option not to participate. If you arm yourself with information and a skeptical lens to what you hear, you will shift the power dynamic in your favor and create an atmosphere where people know that you want nothing but the truth.
Ashley is a sophomore from Topeka.
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