David Meredith's Blog - Posts Tagged "self-expression"
On the Defeat of Freedom and Those Who Enabled It; How North Korea Beat the American People
Yesterday, December 17, 2014, the United States was shamefully defeated by The People’s Republic of North Korea and it should infuriate every American.
In an act of shear and craven cowardice, under threat of violence from the North Korean hacker organization that recently stole thousands of confidential documents from Sony Pictures Studios, the five largest American theater chains (Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Cineplex Entertainment, and Carmike Cinemas) have refused to screen Seth Rogan’s most recent film “The Interview” – a comedy about a convoluted CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jung Un, the authoritarian dictator of North Korea. It was further announced today that Steve Carell’s still under development PRK project “Pyongyang” would be scrapped as well after the hackers threatened violence against US movie theaters. In their words, “The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places [theaters] at that time. If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.” The North Korean government has decried the film ever since it was announced and demanded that it be suppressed. Now it has been in a spectacular and humiliating fashion as corporate executives stumble over themselves in a mad rush to appease a bully and a despot while the Freedom of Artistic Expression spirals downward in withering flames upon the command of Kim Jong Un.
I know very little about the substance of this movie. Based upon what I do know, I probably wouldn’t even really care to see it. I have nothing to offer in terms of my views on its artistic merits nor could I add any informed observations about the prowess of its creators Seth Rogen and James Franco. That, however, is beside the point and any creative person who values their freedom to make a public statement unmolested should be aghast and dismayed by this grossly capitulatory decision.
Kim Jong Un is a ruthless and brutal dictator of one of the poorest most oppressive countries on Earth, who controls every morsel of information received by his own people. He has virtually no international influence and his nation is perhaps the most isolated on the planet, yet in one contemptible act of unapologetic cyber terrorism, he reached across the ocean and commanded the citizens of the United States of America that within the very borders of our own homeland “YOU MAY NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!” Then the theater companies swiftly acquiesced, bowing down before the altar of the tyrant to meekly execute his will.
It is reasonable to be concerned after any threat of violence, and surely these companies still have the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre firmly fixed in their minds, but fear and intimidation cannot be permitted to drive us shrieking into pusillanimous retreat. Rather it should call us to vigilance when our freedoms are threatened. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Voltaire added and I certainly agree with his sentiment “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” These are the core values of any functioning democracy.
Indeed, there is a reason that the freedoms of speech and artistic expression are protected by the very First Amendment of the Constitution in The Bill of Rights. Democracy does not work without the free flow of ideas and information. Any time we allow a government, any government, to control the information that we receive and dispense, we are giving that government license to control our perspectives and even the most quotidian of our acts and interactions.
If we capitulate to the whims of a hateful narcissist now, where will it stop? If someone wants to make a movie about the brutality of ISIS or Al Qaida, will we scrap it if those groups threaten us? If someone makes a speech that Vladamir Putin decries, shall we appease him? If someone wants to write a book or a poem or make a speech or paint a picture that some dictator somewhere finds somehow vaguely offensive shall we silence them? If you are anyone anywhere who feels that your ability to express yourself and your ideals is a key component of who you are and what you stand for, the repression of this movie should deeply anger and disturb you.
In Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, lie the earthly remains of over 400,000 Americans from disparate wars who were willing to lay down their lives in defense of the values we cherish and the freedoms we enjoy. From the Revolutionary War until today, over 662,000 Americans have lost their lives in combat, fighting to protect the idealism of the values to which this country aspires, not the least of which is the freedom to speak our minds. How starkly all of these contrast with those who made the decision to repress this movie and serve the will of our enemies! It frankly, denigrates and degrades the memory of these honorable dead and the nobility of the legacy they left behind to we, their grateful progeny.
Whether left wing or right wing, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Constitution Party, Green or what have you, whatever the religion, race, or social class, EVERY American should deplore and despise this blatant and shameful act of poltroonish timidity on the part of these companies. An attack on our freedom of speech, an assault upon our most basic right to self-expression, artistic or otherwise, is an attack on all of us. All Americans who rightly cherish their ability to express themselves free from fear of reprisal – whether by speech, or painting, or sculpture, or music, or cinematic composition or in any other way - need to stand up and demand that these organizations do their part to protect the values that we all share. Instead, Freedom of Expression lost yesterday.
Seth Rogan has a right to make his movie. Sony Pictures has a right to release it. We all have a right to go see it and love it or loath it based solely upon our own sensibilities and appreciations without interference from third world dictators. It is my hope that the American people will show more strength and tenacity than these quaking executives whose actions have numbered them among the diffident and the fainthearted. I hope that the artist and the pundit, the author and the musician, the politician and the protester will all repudiate the appeasers and let our displeasure be known. For my own part, until this decision is reversed I will not be visiting the cinemas, purchasing the grossly overpriced concessions, nor patronizing in ANY way the theaters of the five companies involved. In the face of violence, intimidation, and oppression we must come together and stand in defiance of the despot and the bully, not run screaming into the night to hide beneath our metaphorical beds.
Freedom isn’t free and it must be defended or it will be surrendered.
In an act of shear and craven cowardice, under threat of violence from the North Korean hacker organization that recently stole thousands of confidential documents from Sony Pictures Studios, the five largest American theater chains (Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Cineplex Entertainment, and Carmike Cinemas) have refused to screen Seth Rogan’s most recent film “The Interview” – a comedy about a convoluted CIA plot to assassinate Kim Jung Un, the authoritarian dictator of North Korea. It was further announced today that Steve Carell’s still under development PRK project “Pyongyang” would be scrapped as well after the hackers threatened violence against US movie theaters. In their words, “The world will be full of fear. Remember the 11th of September 2001. We recommend you to keep yourself distant from the places [theaters] at that time. If your house is nearby, you’d better leave.” The North Korean government has decried the film ever since it was announced and demanded that it be suppressed. Now it has been in a spectacular and humiliating fashion as corporate executives stumble over themselves in a mad rush to appease a bully and a despot while the Freedom of Artistic Expression spirals downward in withering flames upon the command of Kim Jong Un.
I know very little about the substance of this movie. Based upon what I do know, I probably wouldn’t even really care to see it. I have nothing to offer in terms of my views on its artistic merits nor could I add any informed observations about the prowess of its creators Seth Rogen and James Franco. That, however, is beside the point and any creative person who values their freedom to make a public statement unmolested should be aghast and dismayed by this grossly capitulatory decision.
Kim Jong Un is a ruthless and brutal dictator of one of the poorest most oppressive countries on Earth, who controls every morsel of information received by his own people. He has virtually no international influence and his nation is perhaps the most isolated on the planet, yet in one contemptible act of unapologetic cyber terrorism, he reached across the ocean and commanded the citizens of the United States of America that within the very borders of our own homeland “YOU MAY NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!” Then the theater companies swiftly acquiesced, bowing down before the altar of the tyrant to meekly execute his will.
It is reasonable to be concerned after any threat of violence, and surely these companies still have the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre firmly fixed in their minds, but fear and intimidation cannot be permitted to drive us shrieking into pusillanimous retreat. Rather it should call us to vigilance when our freedoms are threatened. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Voltaire added and I certainly agree with his sentiment “I may disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” These are the core values of any functioning democracy.
Indeed, there is a reason that the freedoms of speech and artistic expression are protected by the very First Amendment of the Constitution in The Bill of Rights. Democracy does not work without the free flow of ideas and information. Any time we allow a government, any government, to control the information that we receive and dispense, we are giving that government license to control our perspectives and even the most quotidian of our acts and interactions.
If we capitulate to the whims of a hateful narcissist now, where will it stop? If someone wants to make a movie about the brutality of ISIS or Al Qaida, will we scrap it if those groups threaten us? If someone makes a speech that Vladamir Putin decries, shall we appease him? If someone wants to write a book or a poem or make a speech or paint a picture that some dictator somewhere finds somehow vaguely offensive shall we silence them? If you are anyone anywhere who feels that your ability to express yourself and your ideals is a key component of who you are and what you stand for, the repression of this movie should deeply anger and disturb you.
In Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, lie the earthly remains of over 400,000 Americans from disparate wars who were willing to lay down their lives in defense of the values we cherish and the freedoms we enjoy. From the Revolutionary War until today, over 662,000 Americans have lost their lives in combat, fighting to protect the idealism of the values to which this country aspires, not the least of which is the freedom to speak our minds. How starkly all of these contrast with those who made the decision to repress this movie and serve the will of our enemies! It frankly, denigrates and degrades the memory of these honorable dead and the nobility of the legacy they left behind to we, their grateful progeny.
Whether left wing or right wing, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Constitution Party, Green or what have you, whatever the religion, race, or social class, EVERY American should deplore and despise this blatant and shameful act of poltroonish timidity on the part of these companies. An attack on our freedom of speech, an assault upon our most basic right to self-expression, artistic or otherwise, is an attack on all of us. All Americans who rightly cherish their ability to express themselves free from fear of reprisal – whether by speech, or painting, or sculpture, or music, or cinematic composition or in any other way - need to stand up and demand that these organizations do their part to protect the values that we all share. Instead, Freedom of Expression lost yesterday.
Seth Rogan has a right to make his movie. Sony Pictures has a right to release it. We all have a right to go see it and love it or loath it based solely upon our own sensibilities and appreciations without interference from third world dictators. It is my hope that the American people will show more strength and tenacity than these quaking executives whose actions have numbered them among the diffident and the fainthearted. I hope that the artist and the pundit, the author and the musician, the politician and the protester will all repudiate the appeasers and let our displeasure be known. For my own part, until this decision is reversed I will not be visiting the cinemas, purchasing the grossly overpriced concessions, nor patronizing in ANY way the theaters of the five companies involved. In the face of violence, intimidation, and oppression we must come together and stand in defiance of the despot and the bully, not run screaming into the night to hide beneath our metaphorical beds.
Freedom isn’t free and it must be defended or it will be surrendered.
