DEFUND THE THOUGHT POLICE

Dear Gate-keepers of the Conversation:

 

Please, with respect and appreciation for the desire to build a better, more harmonious world – 

Don’t tell artists what we can or cannot write, or say, or think, or express.

Don’t squelch debate in favor of censorship, or require punishment for discussing ‘wrong’ ideas.

Don’t promote a system where lemmings are rewarded for ‘acceptable’ opinions and skeptics are punished for pushing back or simply asking questions.

Don’t set yourselves up as the arbiters of ‘truth.’

Don’t criminalize dissent from the hive-mind consensus.

Don’t demand compliance as the price of participation in open society.

And don’t be surprised if those of us who value freedom and originality refuse to comply.

 

Art must follow its own unencumbered path, and creativity chart its pilgrim course. Free expression produces a bounty of riches, while restrictive rules — however well intended — starve the soul.  The truly wretched will reveal itself and be despised.

Now is the time to speak, to listen, and to share. And, most of all, to push back against censorship, which ultimately leaves all of us in darkness. 

 

That is all.