Posted by
Edwin Leap on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 9:44:24 AM
For years now, I've been telling friends that I fully expect to land in prison one day; not because I knock over liquor stores, steal cars, cheat on my taxes or make inappropriate advances towards young ladies. No, I'll end up there because I have the wrong opinions. Take this post, cut it out and put it in the time-capsule. Because we'll have political prisons in this country; probably in my lifetime.
Why is that? Because the freedom to express ideas is no longer valued by those on the political left. Ironically, free speech was a traditionally liberal idea, in the old, noble meaning of liberal as something which advanced human liberty. Now, free speech is an annoyance. There are constant attempts to circumvent the 'wrong' opinions, whether through things like the fairness doctrine, through 'speech police' on university campuses or as in other countries such as Canada and the UK, by calling unpleasant speech a 'human rights' violation and offering fines and imprisonment to those who speak out in unwelcome ways. Read a bit about columnist Mark Steyn and his struggles in the Great White North, read about the European and Canadian tendency to prosecute pastors who speak out against homosexuality from the pulpit; if you do you'll know that trouble is a-brewin'.
'But isn't that extreme? Political prisons in the land of the free?' Not a bit. The reason I know is that I have tried to have conversations or correspondence with ardent liberals, and the interactions often end in shouting, profanity and the ubiquitous, inflammatory word 'whatever,' on the part of the so called progressive.
Well, if these folks come to power, do you think they'll tolerate engaging and enlightened dialogue? No, they'll fine first, then censure, then call for re-education and ultimately, for those of us who are 'hard cases,' they'll imprison. The reason being, 'tolerance' doesn't exist. And since a good society can't 'tolerate' the wrong opinions, the only way to manage those opinionated folks will be to lock them away and deny them access to other more enlightened humans, or to media outlets.
If you think I'm wrong, that's fine. Maybe I'm just too paranoid. But go to a group of liberals and tell them you don't believe in anthropogenic global warming, tell them you think abortion is murder and tell them you think that homosexuals should not be allowed to marry or form civil unions because it violates scriptural guidelines. Tell them that any sex outside of marriage between a man and woman is sinful. Tell them that profit is good and socialism is bad; and that you have the historical evidence to prove it.
Then sit back and watch the lather form. They won't pull out texts or articles. For all their scientific atheism and love of rational thought, they won't refute you calmly, or engage in 'dialogue,' over a glass of Merlot while referring to scholarly articles. They'll fairly explode.
When intolerance of another opinion becomes that vicious, the only way people (without a spiritual bed-rock of concern for human equality) can manage it is to shut it up and put it away.
So, reserve my room in the prison. I think and say all of the wrong things. And eventually, as is already happening in modern democracies elsewhere, people like me will end up in deep trouble.
At least I won't have to worry about whether I put away enough money for retirement!
Edwin