The Few For The Many

Quote of the day:

Humanity does not care for freedom. The mass of the people realize they are not up to it: what they want is being fed, led, amused, and above everything, drilled. But they do care for the phrase.

All stories of countries and people attaining freedom, are stories of a select few individuals fighting the apathy of the masses with the sheer force of their character. The majority is an indifferent bunch, they couldn't care less about issues that don't affect their daily lives. Even genocides are dismissed until it's your home that seems empty.

(Via)

Not Alone

Moral policing in India incites emotions ranging from bewilderment to disgust. At times, even jealousy at the relative freedom that the citizens of the west enjoy. No more. Proof that human insanity is distributed equally all over the globe:

Atlanta considers banning baggy pants: Convinced that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country, city councilman C.T. Martin has sponsored this rather absurd legislation. Apart from boxer shorts and thongs, bra straps will probably be banned too. Violation ofany of these laws will result in strict fines. Apparently they are not the first to think up something like this:

Earlier this year, the town council in Delcambre, La., passed an ordinance that carries a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail for exposing underwear in public. Several other municipalities and parish governments in Louisiana have enacted similar laws in recent months.

Feel free to sell guns, but dildos? Never.: Blowing up people's heads may be a pretty reasonable thing to do, but a blowjob? Good God No.

And its not just evil dirty dildos that these paternalistic lawmakers have saved the state from, they have banned casinos, lotteries and betting parlours too. Utopia, no?

(Stories via digg)

Freedom Of Expression

Freedom of expression is supposed to be just that, the freedom to express what you want to express. But more often than not it turns out to be the freedom to express what others feel is right for you to express. I have always believed that India is one of the best places to live in as far as this aspect was concerned. The governments have always been criticised balantly sometimes with reason and sometimes without any reason by the media and the people alike. The number of parties with different views on different issues was supposed to be a representation of the right to hold an opinion which is true according to you.
But every now and then an incident occurs which shakes my faith in the system. A recent one was the controversy involving the movie Ore Oru Gramathile a movie which showed how reservations are used and abused by people to secure jobs and admissions in educational institutions. Some people were not happy with the movie and as has become a convention in India they threatened vioilence against cinema owners if the movie was screened.This much was the epected part. Living in Gujarat and having seen the kind of responses that Fanaa got the kind of reaction was not actually a surpise. What actually surprised me was the High Court judgement against the screening of the movie. The Supreme Court did finally reverse the High Court's decision but that does not correct the basic feeling of fear among the government and the judiciary that a film will provoke people to violence.
What they chose to forget every now and then is the fact that people generally do not prefer to get violent and burn down whole cities just because they did not like the message of the movie that they just saw. They have better things to spend their time on. Its only the political parties or the units that work under them that have the time for stuff like this. And they have a very good reason for this: They donot have issues to stir up people with and if there are any issues that deserve to be raised they never are as they will only reveal the failures of the parties.
And a request for the judiciary: You people up there are no different from us citizens and if you have enough discretion to not go on a city burning spree every time you see a new movie, so do we.
I read an excellent article on Freedom of Speech by Dr. Ajai Sahni. If you would like to go through it too, read it here.