Free speech: The freedom to indoctrinate, manipulate and violate?
Information is the food of the soul.
The information we take in impacts our minds and bodies. It determines our belief systems and how we behave towards ourselves, each other and the environment.
The notion of free speech has been perverted to mean the freedom to indoctrinate and manipulate the minds of others for one’s own benefit. Under the umbrella of this seemingly noble value, we are violating the freedom for a healthy mind and body, of people and planet. To uproot this cancerous mechanism, we need to urgently shift the notion of free speech to the free expression of only honest and nourishing information.
Through seductive advertisements, films, video games, cell phone apps and reality TV, we have created a system that incessantly imposes on our conscious and subconscious mind, physical and social violence, empty addictive behaviors and idolization of hedonistic lifestyles that deplete soul and planet. Even watching news and educational programs on television entails lengthy exposure to adverts that sell damaging products and ideas.
It is absurd and criminal if not ridiculously counterproductive to expect parents or the police, the education or justice systems to deal effectively with the addictions, disease, violence and environmental destruction spread by media.
The burden is on the taxpayer to fund government’s limited attempts and incentive to address the resulting disease, despair and destruction which continue to spiral out of control. No parent or social system can contend with the underlying virus that has taken root and is going against human and environmental health and life itself.
Mainstream debate is stuck in the artificial polarity argument of freedom of speech versus censorship. This argument is part of the control paradigm. It inevitably creates a win-lose situation and a fight for the domination of minds.
Under the guise of free speech in a capitalist economy, healthy information is insidiously censored and perverted while people and companies that sell disease dominate airtime. If however we move from a control paradigm to a cultural, educational and legal paradigm of “the right to be free of damaging and manipulative information and the right to be nourished by healthy and honest information” we create a new organizing principle to guide law and policy makers regarding every aspect of society including media and education.
A typical argument and power struggle would be “who decides what is healthy and what is not”. Let’s start with the obvious. Sugar, pesticides, chemicals, factory farm products, addictions, violence, greed, envy, prejudice, social humiliation, narcissism, selfish life styles, standardization of beauty and success, exposure to radiation, nuclear testing, fracking, the depletion of planetary resources and political lies are clearly unhealthy for one and all. The consensus list of unhealthy products, mindsets and habits is much longer than this.
Any parent whose intuition is still intact in the face of their own indoctrination will be able to identify the accuracy of these and other items, as part of an ever-expanding list of diseases sold to us by the establishment.
If there is debate on the health of any idea or product we need to move beyond relying on questionable “scientific evidence” to seeking the wise counsel of experts. Experts are not scientists invested in specific results, but those that have dedicated their lives to living in healthy communities in harmony with nature and who have sifted through scientific and other information to discern that which is vital for people and planet. They are people who cultivate and contribute to healthy living systems where many of the chronic mental and emotional diseases we see in most cities do not exist.
Global initiatives are sprouting worldwide to hold governments and companies accountable for the human and planetary damage caused by their misinformation. This is a vital and growing trend. Companies, governments, advertising agencies and media outlets need to be held responsible for the impact of the overt and subtle information they offer to the public for financial gain. Beyond holding responsible all those involved in promoting unhealthy products and ideas, we also need a new and healthy organizing principle for all social communication including for the government, education systems and media.
Let’s educate about the damage of false information and about what healthy nourishing and honest information means. Let’s collectively hold those who peddle in false information accountable for the consequences. It is time to embed in the law our right to have access to honest and healthy information and our right to be free from false and manipulative information as we go about our daily lives.
