Freedom of the press


::Grain of Salt needed to proceed:: Watch for steam release valves and gastric obstructions.

Ok now here is a subject which may ruffle some feathers and may incite this blog to get banned but i feel i ned to say something about it. The american agenda, or a social consciousness in the united states often takes positions on things and events in other countries and runs with them. I am not speaking out against the use of media to notify the world of perceived wrongs but their tendency to dwell on these wrongs is what earns america their reputation. by imposing our value system onto other cultures and countries we position ourselves as the world nannies. We are the first country that people come to when they have issues and the first to be blamed. Cursed when it takes us days to reach a tsunami ravaged nation. But days and weeks before some of those people now in distress where burning our flag. Go ahead, i’ve heard the blue parts make a nice accent color to the gasoline your using to light it. Lets hope all of the flags were at least made in america, then the profits for their protests are at least going back to us, can’t be using knock off flags to burn. Where’s the sense of propriety in a protest. But i digress. I’m not saying we shouldn’t help but that we shouldn’t interfere when not wanted. Natural disasters are the only exception to this rule. If your country is trashed by a hurricane, we should be the better man in that instance and lend a hand.

The origin of this ramble was when i saw yet another post about chinese censorship of internet materials. Can you believe it a communist state is limiting the access to information. The only reason that the incoherent thoughts and self righteous rambles get published and causes taken up is because we, as americans perceive the world’s ultimate goal as freedom? We barely have any left of our own at this point, with domestic spying and vague promises of safety. But again besides the point. Our main image problem is that as a free nation we tend to lay our values and goals over those of other nations, other sovereign bodies, they come from different cultural roots and in some cases are significantly older societies than ours. We may view conduct as wrong but to be quite honest unless they infringe upon another nation which asks for our help we shouldn’t be doing anything. How would anyone here like it if Canada got pissed, after they sobered up of course, and came down to crack down on our censorship of material with words we deem offensive, which they did not. See South Park the Movie. We would assume the “who are you to tell me how to act attitude”

Now apply this to other nations and I’m sure you can see the genesis for their feelings toward us. To be honest at the begging of this post i had a coherent vision i wanted to espouse i was even talking to myself when i did it, so i could lay the logic out. I’m lost at this point and i just hope the gist of my argument went through.

i hope that i don’t impose my world views on people and as an anthropologist i hope that my bias is well stated, understood and taken into account when these thoughts are read. Use the george carlin analogy. (loosely quoted)”You are full of shit, and i can prove it. Where you smart ten years ago? No you where a goddamn idiot. Chances are your a goddamn idiot now its just going to take you a while to figure it out.” The world needs a little more humor and less vitriol.

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