Up until now I hadn't been including dates in my articles here on
espdigiart.com for several reasons, but
in this case what happened in the last 24 hours was something I felt should
be said was more relevant than usual in my decision to write these words.
I have a friend that I have had numerous disagreements with over time, particularly
over politics. She can't figure out why I would believe what I do any more than I
can believe she believes what she does. It's like talking with someone (and for her I have
to imagine it feels this way too) who can't hear them when we try to have a
talk about politics.
So as there has been censorship talked about she not only compared President Trump
to Hitler, which while I wondered if he would be more similar to four years ago,
enough that I voted third party. This year I didn't vote for either major party
candidate either.
As she and I were arguing she suggested that there was nothing wrong with what
would (if allowed to continue) amount to nothing short of the abolition of the
first amendment. Her actual argument was that they should have censored
Hitler. Safe to say anyone who understands history understands full well why.
Unfortunately what that left me wondering wasn't if that was the solution but
instead what would have happened to Germany in the early 20th century if they
had (despite how desperate the German people of the time were) found a way to
refuse all censorship of any part of their political spectrumthat was demanded
by the Nazi's and that had never been allowed to take place.
Would things have gone so far?
Would as many people have died, or better yet would all the
deaths that happened in Nazi Germany have been prevented?
Would that government have remained in power so long, let alone
been able to do anywhere near as much damage?
Would those in power who were corrupt have been removed before
bloodshed or that had been needed?
Would it have only changed who was guilty of the bloodshed?
Could it for any reason have made it easier for those who fought
Germany when they were exterminating people to win the war thus
saving lives on the battle feild perhaps even on both sides?
If someone (or many someones) makes a bad decision because a
politician says so wasn't it their decision? Everyone could
have made the decision to be perfectly peaceful show up in
force and yes maybe even openly armed (if that's legal) never
fired a shot or hurt anyone, doing just enough to let them know:
- nobody wants things to go further than a peaceful gathering
- nobody wants anyone to get hurt
- but if the government doesn't remember who they work
for and they even try to throw the first punch at we
the people then we the people can and will throw the
last one
What did happen where they allowed the Censorship was the
definition of evil. Do we want to learn from this and make
a different set of choices now, or is anyone okay with even
the slightest risk repeating the mistake of censoring
people, or doing anything else to exclude people based
on what we think is in their hearts and minds?
And I am stopping there because I don't want to give
hackers ideas about how they could silence people ]
they just don't like personally. Is anyone reading
this really up for that risk, or where it could lead?
Because that's one very real risk that people had better
plan on thinking about as we make decisions about what
happens to our lives and our way of life going forward.
Putting aside the fact I am not convinced about the 2020 elections at
any level of government because of some stuff that I had seen several
years ago and the fact this election had overture for fraud written
all over it (and I would have taken it with a grain of salt and wanted
everything double and triple checked at all levels just because of how they
conducted that 2020 elections) and I probably would be saying the same
thing no matter who won just because my bias is in favor of the election
process being an accurate reflection the will of the people even when I disagree
with them about who should hold what office.
A few hours later we were watching some TV together, and she of course had to
put on a news network that she happens to favor and I happen not to I found myself
looking at the Journalists on TV thinking 'how can they support this? Don't they
know that they fall into the next class down on any list from politicians. They
are public figures who if they step out of line, their words or actions get taken
out of context what do they think is going to happen to them.'
In an alternate time-line:
First they came for the President Trump and Trump supporters
and I was not a Trump Supporter and I certainly am not
President Trump
so I said nothing
Then they came for the Journalists who were saying things that weren't
supportive enough of certain policies and the Politicians that supported
gun rights, and said maybe censorship shouldn't be expanded and people
who openly supported them
but I did not openly support them so I said nothing
Then they came for people who had people who got caught failing to
openly support increasingly tyrannical policies
and I didn't get caught so didn't say word one
Then they came for me and because I had been silent there was
no one to act let alone speak out against their actions against me
I am an artist not a journalist, and I have no intention of changing
that nor any desire to do so but when I actually searched the question
of if art should be subsidized I
actually have seen in the search engine suggest the question of weather
or not art should be censored as a question to ask. Lets me be honest I
have something to lose right here right now because anyone who reads
through espdigiart.com is going to
realize that in that alternate time-line I probably would have pulled an
awful lot of my articles down in order to keep any part of espdigiart.com.
But I am not doing that. Right here right now I am deliberately publishing
because it's the right thing to do, and I would rather stand up peacefully now
than stand down against something that I know very well might have no qualms
about killing me, perhaps even doing so in a less than humane manner later.
Truthfully one of the things I hate about people being so desperate to
be politically correct and not offend anyone is that just like
my art might show something about
what is in my heart, their words might show something about what's in
there. What's in a persons heart is still there even if they don't say
it, so if someone says something that offends me then after I get over
the initial problem that goes with that I know enough to get away from
that person. If someone hides that from me then I don't have the information
to foresee them being dangerous to me later that can lead to a lot more
serious problems.
I realize that people say distasteful things, and yes I know of artists
who do or at least have done horribly distasteful things that I don't even
know if anyone should even count as art
and not one of them should be censored.
There are also people throughout history have have done amazing works that we all
know the FCC would probably blur and personally I don't buy that every person who
wanted them in their home or gardens for reasons that were anywhere near as tasteful
as everyone wants to claim and I certainly would never say those should be censored.
I wholeheartedly disagree with public subsidizes of art but
through what seem like large chunks of the year of 2020 I was hearing that some statue or other (generally of
historical figures, but other things too) and I don't care where in the country it was I wholeheartedly disagree
with the people who were trying to practice a form of censorship at the time by �saying because those people
engaged in whatever evil practice� their statue should be torn down and whatever good they did forgotten. And as
things stand I regret that I didn't speak out against their actions both here and maybe on social media when I
knew to have been happening even if I thought nobody would ever know the differece that I had said something
in a venue where anyone could. In fact I said to someone I was hanging out with at the time if it's about
the fact they did things that were bad then let there be signs placed with the statues that disclose all the
bad right along side with all the good they did showing the whole truth about whoever or whatever we have memorialized.
Even my friend who has supported the censorship done now was honestly shocked and I think
a bit disgusted when we heard it was some statue of an animal because it wasn't about
doing the right thing, it was about destroying to destroy. Maybe the average person should
be consider standing up against censorship for the simple fact that no matter what might
have been influencing them those were human beings doing that in 2020 and so are politicians which
warrants the question how long until it's about censorship for the sake of censorship? Or
would everyone prefer to stop this here and now while it's people you might disagree with, might
even hate before they come for you because you don't want them to come for you ever?
�2012-present E. S. Pfahl. All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means - - graphic electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, information storage and retrieval systems - - without written permission of
E. S. Pfahl
