Censorship in America is, in principle, generally met with disgust and disapproval, but is in actuality approached with inactivity and passivity. The WikiLeaks release of thousands of documents regarding the Iraq War just over a week ago is nearly completely removed from the news cycle and the psyche of the American public. Information is removed from public, censored from the view of the country and Americans . . . do not care. Or notice.
The 24 hours news cycle creates a surplus of information, making it difficult for average Americans to sift through the volume and seek concrete fact and stories. Perhaps this has contributed to the apathy toward information and participation in our "free" society.
How has this country created an atmosphere of apathy and ignorance toward activities of the government, military, and greater society? Americans believe they are free because they are told they are free. However, much of society's responibilities are delegated to political elite without American input or knowledge. Citizens allow this to happen. Even when an attempt is made to provide enlightenment and insight to the inner workings of governmental institutions the American people do not capitalize on the chance to force accountability and honesty on the purveyors of censorship.
The ignorance of the American public is a self-inflcited curse, condemning our society to a world of increased censorship and distraction. Disallowing the government to continually acknowledge and take accountability for the information conveyed in thousands of documents released by a non-governmental entity is a parody of the freedom we champion as Americans. The torture which continued after President Barack Obama's absolute abhorrence of the practice and Executive Order banning such interrogation should diminish faith and honesty in the president. Instead, his approval rating went up some six points this past week. One Newsweek poll has Obama above fifty percent.
What happened to the presidential nominee whose aversion to torture was prominent and esteemed? These documents released, detailing the procedural process of various detainees and the detainers' direct violations of the Geneva Conventions, do not send any Americans up in arms about lies and outright criminality. The death of over 66,000 civilians in the six year war does not instigate any sort of disgust, disappointment, or even general recognition and awareness (That's 31 civilians dead every day from 2003-2009, in case you are too dispassionate to do the math). As for the people we were actually fighting, 23,984 "enemies" were killed during the same time period.
One article addressing the questioning of Obama's policies received 218 comments (as of October 30, 2010). Articles mentioned on the same page included "Charlie Sheen Found Nude in Restaurant" (2,767 comments), "Christine O'Donnell Reveals Surprising Personal Information" (2,311 comments), and "Rally to Restore Sanity Attendance Estimated in Hundreds of Thousands" (12,340 comments). A discussion of a losing candidate's favorite television show, the number of people who attended a rally sponsored by Comedy Central, and a naked actor all trump the interest level regarding presidential censorship, unlawfulness, and deception.
While there is an over-surplus of information bombarding the American public everyday, the access to such amounts of information also allows for an individual to find concise news, informational news, biased news, fictional news, boring news, and factual news. The amount of news should never be an excuse for an inability to read it. There are thousands of avenues Americans can travel to access headlines, articles, and reports, and can likely find each story in a multitude of formats. Even WikiLeaks summarizes the most significant information on their homepage.
Because of the ridiculous amount of news sources available, where is the American outrage at the government censorship of the Wikileaks documents? Why is there simply no anger at the fact that the government continually censors this information, and likely censors far more? Our "free" society embraces censorship*. And no one gives a damn.
When a news story appears which blatantly contradicts previous submissions, the American public should be up in arms with anger instead of complacently wasting their lives away. In America today, there is too little awareness of the issues facing us every day as the direct way these predicaments impact our future and the future of the nation. America is not a free nation. It is held hostage by its own ignorant inadequate-ability to care.
*I understand the requirement to censor certain documents which pertain to current or future military operations. WikiLeaks understand this as well, and operates accordingly.
No comments:
Post a Comment