Strike The Battle Flag!

    I love freedom of speech. I can get really irritated with the concept sometimes when I listen to the poisonous propaganda that oozes out of FOX News, yet as a whole I adore it. Aside from the moral implications of allowing a population to speak its mind and say whatever it pleases, whether the government likes it or not, wonderful things arise from the practice. I don’t know about you guys, but I rather like having comedians, novelists, singers, and artists who can express their souls and opinions without worrying about someone calling “Off with their head!” We get some fantastic stuff aside from Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, like what happened today when South Carolina took down their Confederate Battle Flag from in front of their state capital building.
    I’ve attached a video of the event below and it is beautiful. Rather than the ravenous boos and “Southern rights” tripe that I expected, the spectators were cheering for the entire time, chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and waving the stars and stripes. Around 3:50 in the clip, you can even hear everyone singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye!” It sounded like the crowd at a football game, which I suppose is a bit demeaning to the hardcore southerners there and I am just fine with that. Perhaps it was a bit petty and perhaps it will galvanize some extremists against the north or rational people in general, but it was not overtly vicious or terribly gloating.
    The beautiful thing about free speech is that, when people have the chance to say whatever they please, they will do so. Sometimes that means that vile words will be spoken. However, I have found that people as a whole recognize and revile truly harmful public agendas. The more that a corrosive message circulates, the more people it could potentially recruit. More importantly, it also reaches moderate and rational ears. Word then spreads from their lips, explaining why the message is harmful and disgusting. What tends to happen I’ve noticed is that the message holds sway for a while, longer if the bias and bigotry that it is founded on is deeply ingrained and widespread, and then it looses clout because its adherents friends and descendants notice how poisonous it is and shy away from it. In short, the more public a harmful message is, the less harm it tends to do in the long run as opposed to the ones that are whispered behind closed doors in only sympathetic ears. Of course there are exceptions like the Nazi party where a poisonous public message takes serious root. Luckily those are few and far between
    For those of you that know me, you know that I’m not a terribly optimistic guy. I opt for realism in every situation and realism can look pretty bleak and similar to pessimism. However, instances like this one in South Carolina make even realism look good.

Song of the Week: You could call the spectators’ singing the song of the week, but here’s my own little contribution.