Posts
Challenges
Portals
Authors
Books
beta
Sign Up
Challenge
Freedom of Speech, and it's Savage Curtailments.
"Since, therefore, no one can abdicate his freedom of judgment and feeling; since every man is by indefeasible natural right the master of his own thoughts, it follows that men thinking in diverse and contradictory fashions, cannot, without disastrous results, be compelled to speak only according to the dictates of the supreme power." ~~ Baruch Spinoza. ~~~~~~~~~ This challenge, much like all the world, is a stage. We each must play our part in deciphering and judging what is morally sanctionable and what is unconscionable. There are questions to be answered and perspectives to be duly considered. We've had our differences here on Prose over the years, but I have always found it to be a place of unparalleled freedom of thought and a platform for lively discourse and spirited exchange of ideas. It has seemed immune to that modern sickness which seeks to excise certain people or opinions from the public sphere in the despicably lillylivered defense of people from the possibility of being offended; that sickening trend which has become so alarmingly prevalent among society at large.... I love that about this site. Perhaps more than anything else; the freedom to say whatever we sincerely give a fuck about, without fear of persecution or removal... So, let us celebrate that free atmosphere with another lively open, honest debate, shall we? Take it in any direction you choose. Speak on any issue you wish. The only rule is utter, complete, and total honesty.
Profile avatar image for shiffa84
shiffa84
54 reads

Polarization

The one thing I absolutely, wholly loathe about the modern world is the fact that we, ourselves, are contributing to the brutal dismemberment of society. The strength of the worldwide human community has been tested many times in history; but I don't believe that before this age of globalization we find ourselves in, the film of our relative world peace has been stretched so thin. It is a quality innate to the 21st century, it is the hallmark of a new era of communication, of mingling, of even the slightest of offences producing ridiculously hyperbolized reactions - a time of polarization in every sense, at the precipice of a stark division that may well rip us forever apart.

Maybe I'm the one blowing things out of proportion, exaggerating due to my personal frustrations. Or maybe do or do not, there is no try really is poisoning our perception of reality and ingraining in us the notion that we either go all in or not get involved at all. That we either become a fanatic on one side or the other, that radicalism is the only ideology commanding the brute force required to make a change. That centrism is weakness and lack of opinion, moderation is restriction and paranoia, unwhole single-focus the sign of a failed endeavor and insufficient commitment.

Maybe I'm the one blowing things out of proportion, exaggerating due to my personal circumstances. Or maybe the question of do you care what others think? posed like a slight to my behavior, an accusation of lack of support, really does make no sense at all? We live in a society, for God's sake, a structure in which we cohabit relatively peacefully and strive daily to maintain! The opinion of others is not something I bow down to, not something I allow to trample over me, it is a variable, a factor in my decision making, risk assessment, in my day-to-day life, because I, you, and he, are all submerged in a big bowl of people, and unless we want to kill each other, we have to play by certain rules, we have to understand certain notions, you have to understand! I am not saying that him wearing a fucking skirt is wrong - I'm not! But you take the fact I am trying to protect you from the wrath of the people you know exist as lack of acceptance because I, unlike you, cannot disregard the fact that they are walking right outside of this store and I, unlike YOU, cannot ignore the danger he would be putting himself in if he went out wearing this, I am not his enemy, I am not yours! I am not embarrassed, I am not ashamed, not of the fact that he's wearing this! I am ashamed at your ignorance, at your nonchalance, your arrogant libertarianism. We live in a society. Deal with it. DEAL WITH IT.

Maybe I'm the one blowing things SO out of proportion, exaggerating due to my "wrong" and "harmful" beliefs. Or maybe the world that has ruined me to the point I cannot voice the above paragraph from anywhere other than behind a computer screen really is fucked up, fucked up because we refuse to accept the fact that we are actively fucking it up, and even if we do, can't deal with the fact that we do so consciously, with the very intent to offend, harm, to the point at which anything can be used as a weapon and everything needs to be censored to fit into our shallow understanding of ourselves and where we stand with others. Our shallow understanding of what it means to self-determine, be independent, assertive, to be ourselves.

6
2
11