From the Inquisition’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum to the book-burning promoted by the NSAP under Hitler, totalitarian regimes and entities have managed to curb the free expression and the spread of ideas thought to be dangerous, heretical or inadequate in some form or another.
The idea of personal freedoms and rationality is the base on which modern society is founded. The great thinkers of the Enlightenment established a lasting legacy that is maintained is the western world.
Regardless, what was at first a multitude of newspapers of very different editorial lines whose varied stances provided a balanced overview of current affairs to the individual, has gradually been reduced to a small group of very powerful media conglomerates that permeate every aspect of modern life; active in the press, radio, television and the Internet.
These information corporations have in many cases developed close ties with parties and governments, undermining the principle of separation from the State and in many cases turned into a mere tool of ruthless politicians. The press, originally an instrument of information, has been perverted, it is now in many cases a misleading force, veiling the reality behind a curtain of cheap entertainment and guarding the interest of those who control it.
The neo-Machiavellian school judged, at the turn of the nineteenth century, that democracy would take the masses to power and argued that only a heavy hand and strict values could maintain the rabble from rising. These elitist philosophers did not imagine the immense power of alienation in the democratic process. From the moment the press fell in the hands of the powerful, democracy became a foul game where the exploited legitimize their exploitation.
Yet, in liberal societies, freedoms of speech and thought have seen very little limitation throughout history, and thus seeds of dissent and alternative thinking were always present, though far-away from mass-culture and the eye of the average reader or viewer.
Today the key to regaining the reins of political life and culture is on the internet, where, despite the ever-expanding presence of media companies, free debate and exchange is still possible in a scale previously unimaginable. Local media can also increase the sense of community and wake citizens up from their political lethargy.
Democracy is fuelled by debate. The ready-made political recipes of today, rarely venturing further than conservative bipartidism must be shaken up and ideas currently imposed and accepted as absolute truths must be debated and questioned.
The flame of freedom lit by those who awoke humankind from its millennium-long apathy has almost been extinguished by people who cannot see beyond than their own miserable interests. It is in our hands to change that.
Caveat Lector
(por mim, para um formulário para uma bolsa de duas semanas nos EUA no verão)
Tópico: The importance of a free press and how mass-media has become a tool of power (Lida 1602 vezes)