by Ray Jason
The
great American novelist, Jack London, used to host elaborate dinner
gatherings at his ranch in northern California. He would invite a
mix of notable people from the worlds of literature, politics and
business. Sprinkled among
these well-known “thought leaders,” as we would describe them
today, would be a group of “regular folk” from the neighboring
ranches and towns.
After
dinner he would rise at the head of the long table and announce that
they were going to engage in a debate. Then he would choose a topic
such as “Should alcohol be made illegal.” Finally, he would
pause for dramatic effect, and exclaim in a ringing voice, “I’LL
TAKE EITHER SIDE!”
I
first heard this inspirational anecdote from my debating coach in
college. He, and the four students who comprised our team, were
packed into a tired station wagon headed for a tournament somewhere
in the Deep South.
Spending
about 20 weekends per school
year traveling to distant
universities to debate the
merits of consequential issues with some of the sharpest collegiate
minds, was the highlight of my higher education.
The
format in those days was that there would be a single resolution that
every team across the country would address. Here is an example:
“Resolved: that the United States should adopt a British style
system of nationalized medicine.”
Each
debater would have to master the various arguments both for and
against the proposition. This was insanely valuable instruction in
the merits of the concept that we call today The Marketplace of
Ideas. What could be better than utilizing our big human brains to
calmly but passionately debate the concepts and policies that effect
the human condition?
I
was so in love with this worldview in those long ago days. I
STILL AM! But a large and
growing segment of our damaged world sees things differently. Or
should I more accurately describe it as … they
don’t see things.
They
have voluntarily put blinders on their thinking. They only
see
straight ahead. They don’t see off
to the side the
subtlety and nuance and complexity
attached to any important issue. They don’t THINK – they
REGURGITATE. They have replaced reason
and curiosity
with IDEOLOGY. They have castrated their minds.
This
societal decline distresses me deeply in my core being. The prospect
of becoming intellectually petrified utterly terrifies me. That
is why I decided to enroll
myself in the World Wide Webiversity.
About
ten years ago, when research became so much easier because of the
Internet, I began to re-examine subjects
that intrigued me. I had a degree in Political Science, with honors,
and yet there seemed to be enormous gaps in my education.
How
could my professors have failed to discuss the impact of the Federal
Reserve on national policy? Why was Mackinder’s “Heartland
Theory” never evaluated?
What
is a False Flag operation?
I
literally began a personal quest to examine everything that I had
been taught; and then evaluate it with fresh eyes aided by the latest
and most
reliable
information. Miraculously, the Web allowed me to research fresh data
without the distortion of Gatekeepers.
This
was magnificent. This was miraculous. Humanity suddenly had access
to unfiltered
information on every
conceivable subject. Surely a new enlightened planet would emerge.
We would harness our intelligence and compassion and vision, and
finally resolve insoluble problems that had plagued us for centuries.
Ha!
What a fool and a Quixote I am. My
belief that we were on the threshold of a far better tomorrow,
blinded me to an emergent cultural phenomenon that could shatter that
possibility.
I had failed to notice that there had been a regression
among a significant number of people who were not embracing the quest
for knowledge, but who were instead SPURNING it. And even more tragically, this was most pronounced in the very places that should have been the greatest bulwark against such retrograde anti-thinking - the university campus.
Suddenly,
controversial ideas had to be accompanied with “trigger warnings”
lest a sensitive student’s emotional and intellectual feelings
might get hurt. When an iconoclastic point of view did manage to
sneak in, then “safe spaces” were provided where puppies and
cookies and crayons could lessen the anguish.
If
a guest speaker was invited to the campus whose worldview did not
mesh with the prevailing orthodoxy, that speaker should be shut down.
If a boycott failed, then drowning out the speaker with shouts,
chants and air horns would commence. If that failed, then fire
alarms would be pulled forcing the evacuation of the lecture hall.
But
it gets worse. If these tactics do not succeed then Antifa shows up.
These are the storm troopers of the anti-free speech movement. They
are also cowardly punks hiding behind their masks and their
self-delusions. How lacking in self awareness does one have to be,
to utilize fascist battle tactics while claiming to be anti-fascist?
So,
where is this leading? When Free Speech is perceived as merely some
quaint relic from the past that must be abandoned in favor of the
supremacy of feelings, bad times are ahead. The suppression of
dialogue and dissent leads to the Graveyard of Ideas.
*******
And
there is another entire front in the war against the free market of
ideas. And that is Cyberspace. But I am working on a separate essay
dedicated to the disgusting censorship that is poisoning the
internet. The working title is "Silicon Valley – The Ministry of
Deceit."
*******
Long
ago, in that battered old station wagon, as the miles slid by, while
we headed to our next debate tournament, there was a sweet vibrancy
as our youthful hopes and curiosity bound us together in a sublime
camaraderie.
There
was that big Future out there with its triumphs and tribulations
awaiting us. We wanted it all. To shut down any ideas or
possibilities seemed like the
definition of absurdity.
Our
coach blessed us with another jewel of Wisdom on one of those long
road trips. It is one of Voltaire’s greatest quotations, and it
goes something
like
this:
“I
may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your
right to say it.”
I
can still recall how much I cherished those words when I was young.
And now that I am less young, I still do!