Fun With Censorship

This is one of a series of fictitious interviews or dialogues to help illustrate the ideas being presented. Dr. Greenwich Hekima: Okay, pick a card. Jon Vincent Deacon: Okay. (He picks a card and looks at it and then holds it back to Dr. Hekima who places it on the bottom of the deck of 52 standard playing cards. Jon Vincent Deacon does not see that Dr. Hekima had peeked at the card and saw that it was the ten of hearts.) Dr. H.: Okay, we have two colors in a deck, pick one. JVD: Black. Dr. H.: That leaves us with red. Now that leaves us with two suits and I need you to choose one. JVD: Uh, lets see, I think that I will select hearts. Dr. H.: Good, lets go with that one. Now, that leaves us with face cards and numbered cards choose one. JVD: Im going to go with face cards. Dr. H.: Excellent, that leaves us with numbered cards. So now we have just even and odds and I need you to select one. JVD: I am choosing even. Dr. H: Another excellent choice, that leaves us with the two, four, six, eight, and ten. I am going to ask you to choose either the lower cards of two and four or the higher cards of six and up. JVD: Ill take the lower cards. Dr. H: Leaving us with six, eight, and ten. I would like you to choose one of those. JVD: Six. Dr. H: We have eight and ten left so, choose one. JVD: Ten. Dr. H: Going with that, I am going to say that your card is the ten of hearts. Am I correct?

JVD: That is amazing. I see what you mean. Never once do you say anything negative and we are constantly moving forward eliminating choices and leading me to where you want me to go. But, how did you know that I had chosen the ten of hearts? Dr. H.: A very indiscrete peek. JVD: You did it well. The whole card trick reminds me of a part of Mein Kampf. In it Hitler says something like from Bach to Beethoven to Schubert, Strauss, Mendelsohn, and Wagner, all the great composers were German. Immediately he list several German and only German Composers implanting it into the readers mind a list of well-known German Composers, subliminally limiting the readers choices and then hits them with a statement that gets them to say, Yes, to. It is like the reader themselves are making that decision as well and they are from the suggested list that Hitler thrusts upon them. I thought that it was an amazing example of marketing. Dr. H.: This card trick is one that many a high pressure salesman is taught to play. It is all about how to guide the customer to the purchase the salesman wants the customer to make. This is what being an excellent salesman is all about. It is not about serving the customer; it is about making the sale that you want them to make. Hitler was an excellent salesman; there is absolutely no doubt about that. One of the greatest tools he did have at his disposal was knowing how to limit the information and in turn, the choices that a person thought that they had available. This is what censorship is all about. It is about limiting information and choices. It is about hiding the reality from the people and getting the people to willingly choose what you want them to making it look as though it was in fact their choice. It is their choice in their minds and it sells the person on the choice by limiting their choices. It is a far easier way of getting your way than by forcing something on people which usually results in resistance and rebellionyou make the person think that it was their idea. The easiest way to control someone is to make them think that they are in control. JVD: I remember seeing some Nazi produced movies. It was interesting how these two German Comedians are talking about listening to foreign news broadcasts. One wanted to listen and the other was explaining that foreign broadcasts were full of tricks and mistruths. He said that their information was skewed to the politics of that country. I guess that the bulk of the Germans thought that they had founded a wonderful system and others were threatened by it and were eager to see it eradicated. So, it made sense that the foreign governments would be flooding the airwaves with lies. But even with that assumption, I find it hard to believe that if you had such a perfect and wonderful system, if your government was so interested in the wellbeing of the people, if they were truly trying their best to serve their nation, they would have absolutely no fear of the lies and outside opinions. But this is an easy judgment as a sideline spectator of what happened over sixty years ago.

Dr. H.: Another opinion is that they chose to believe it because if they didnt, they would be rounded up and sent to what were at the time, termed re-education camps for political prisoners, but would become called concentration camps. The camps themselves were kept secret. First of all, if you are again doing what is right for the nation and your people, if you honestly believe that what you are doing is right and honest, why would you need to keep it secret, dress it up, or have to use propaganda to get people to accept it? JVD: Every time I hear about how we are taking care of the Iraqis and Afghanis, I find myself thinking of another film made by the Nazis showing all of these Jewish people in a resettlement camp having fun, working, healthy, and smiling. They showed this movie at all movie theaters in Germany. It made the German people think that everything was being done legally. I found out that the people in the film had already been murdered before it was ever shown. I am also reminded of how Leopold II of Belgium had the world believing he was doing everything that he could to help and improve the lives of the people of the Congo. In reality, over nine million people were murdered and millions of others had their lives destroyed forever and were mutilated by having hands cut off. That was just sick, Leopold was making millions but to prove that bullets werent wasted, his troops had to produce a hand for every bullet they used. Just how sick is that? So addicted to money, things, and your ego that lives are less important than the cost of a bullet? Dr. H.: Lives that Leopold II never had to meet, see, or talk to; Ive noticed that is very important to people like that. The person who orders the crimes or abuses isnt the one who actually has to get his hands dirty. To this day there are people who believe that Leopold II was a great philanthropist. I will say that immediate flags went up when it was reported that there would be a tight control over the media during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention that the same media is owned by the people who own most of our politicians. Another flag went up when I heard what a great job we were doing for the people of those countries. JVD: Censorship is basically only good for control and manipulation. Dr. H.: It is a very big evil in robbing the public of ideas. This is especially true in a republic when the government grows and develops based on the bounty of different ideas. Restriction of ideas is only good for limiting choices and control. If something other than military information is being censored, they are hiding something from the voters and that in my opinion should be considered treasonous in a government of, by, and for the people. Not only that, but by censoring things in order to protect the nation is all just a control through limiting information and it also creates a situation where people can be victimizedthe more you know and see, the more you can protect yourself.

JVD: Ive always said that it doesnt matter if the Republicans or Democrats win. Not that they are owned by the same interests but it is just simply that our choices have been limited so much by the two that when we get fed up with the agenda of one we vote back in the other until we get tired of their same old nonsense and return back to the former. In the meantime, they both make tons of money in the interim. Dr. H.: Censorship only serves a couple of purposes such as control and manipulation of public opinion, eliminating competing ideas, and hiding the truth of what is going on from the public which is just all about maintaining who is in control and profiting from it. JVD: If the government is doing what is right, they would have absolutely no problems being truthful and open about what they are doing. If a government is trying to do what is best for the public, they would have no reason to hide anything, if the ideas are the bests, there is no reason to fear the opposing ideas. Just the simple fact that they are hiding items from public knowledge is a major admission of the guilt of what they are doingthey know that we would rebel if we knew the truth. Dr. H.: That is right. People need to hold their representatives responsible for their actions. We need to double check everything they tell us. We must make them tell the truth. It is our lives they are playing with. It is our lives they are stealing potential from by limiting our choices. It is our government, our country, and most importantly our lives. One scary thing I have noticed is that all governments like Kims in North Korea, Stalins in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and so on, and all religious cults such as Jim Jones, Branch Dravidian, and many others is that the first thing they do is limit the information to their followerscensorship and complete control of the media stating that they are protecting the people from evil influences. As we have said, if you are right and honest, you have nothing to fear from opposing viewpoints so why do you need to censor them? As far as religious leaders go, why in the world would God need to hide from lies or wrong ideas? We are talking about God. Is God so weak that God needs you to say what people can read or see? If so, I dont want any part of that God, that God is far too weak to be the real God. JVD: Extremely good point doctor, this should be a warning flag to you immediately. If you are contemplating following a leader and he or she insists that you not read or see certain things, ask them what are they afraid of? Chances are, they are afraid of you learning the truth. Dr. H.: It is so sad the loss of life and potential through censorship. Millions have been loss to wars based on greed and lies. Thousand have been murdered by religious cults that were nothing more than con jobs or were led by the deranged. Millions more have been enslaved by egomaniacs who are only worried about their wellbeing and luxury. JVD: I guess that is why Marx said that voting is the opiate of the masses.

Dr. H.: Definitely, I believe that he saw the voting system as a way for people to think that the choice and the power was really theirs, but in reality, the vote is being manipulated like the card trick to what those in power want. Truth is, they will do whatever they have to to maintain their position and the perks that go along with it. Simply question everything, make them work for their perks, benefits, and pay just as you have to. Make them prove their points and reasons. Challenge them and keep them on their toes. This is the entire point of a republic. It is not the manipulation of the vote to get what they want through limiting your choices. JVD: What about the myth that censorship is for your protection? Dr. H.: Think of this, why did you help your children with their homework instead of just giving them the answers? JVD: I realized that only by challenging themselves would they learn and grow. It gave them the opportunity to develop their minds and feel good about themselves and build selfconfidence. If I had done it for them, they would have never realized any of these things, at least on the level that they have achieved. They would have just grown dependent on me and not on themselves. Dr. H.: How are voters any different? To build a strong nation, we need voters who are able to think and challenge themselves. When something is censored, the government is taking from them the opportunity to challenge themselves, grow, and learn which are all critical to cast a valid vote. When a representative is censoring, whether it is a book, a movie, an article, a song, an idea, a photo, a painting, you need to ask yourself what are they afraid of you finding out or realizing. JVD: Thank you, doctor. Dr. H.: Thank you.