1984. in China.

[Andrew Dinn]

joseph porter writes:

> With the arrest and "confession" of Mr. Woo in China, 
> it is chilling to see, five years before the 
> millenium, the operation of a state apparatus "Oceana" 
> may have avoided.

> It is interesting that the organized, militant and 
> armed citizenry of America often points to China as a 
> rationalization for their mobilization and the 
> legitimation of their activites.

> I have always felt that if we in the west have been 
> lucky enough to avoid an Orwellian future, it has been 
> more than anything, because of the publication, 
> dissemination and discussion of his book (and the 
> great sacrifices he made to write it), rather than 
> some neo-Jeffersonian call to arms.

How much power does our free speech really grant us, though? As
opposed, that is, to the power which comes from our money - money
which we `earn' by virtue of a privileged economic position which
depends to a great degree on the presence of disadvantaged and
impoverished people both outside *and* inside the territory over which
our social cocoon is constructed. It's neither books (not even Old
Tom's C20th Alamanac) nor private arms which guarantee us our
`freedoms' but the usual old run-of-the-mill profiteering and
oppression beloved of any empire.

A-and here's the cheap parting shot without which this note would be
incomplete. Even when we have the economic liberty to exercise our
speaking rights in an informed way in a forum of our choice that still
doesn't mean we are at liberty to change the powers (them?) that
tolerate privileged, blinkered, liberal gadflys like ourselves, does
it now.

brotherly,


Andrew Dinn
-----------
O alter Duft aus Maerchenzeit / Berauschest wieder meine Sinne
Ein naerrisch Heer aus Schelmerein / Durchschwirrt die leichte Luft