A Hundred Flowers

I enjoy writing my blog.  Nevertheless, I stopped posting last fall.  I was taking a course on totalitarianism and what I learned in that class actually began to worry me in many ways.  I know many people think that talking about such things is paranoia or conspiracy talk.  And I am one that doesn't really trust everything I hear but insist that I must check it out for my self.  I always check sources.  But last fall semester I had a professor that wasn't afraid to speak the truth and he had us read many articles and books that opened my eyes to things that I didn't want to see.  You know, if you don't really want the answer, then maybe you shouldn't ask the question.  What I learned in that class and other classes worried me to the core and caused me to stop writing my blog.  But here I go again.

My professor was up for tenure and I believe that due to his speaking the truth, it cost him.  Now he too is looking for a new job.  He will teach this fall and winter but then he is moving on.  And I must admit, it will be a great loss to the current and future students of that institution.  Because he is a true teacher.  He cares about his students and he tries to stretch their minds to look and see truth wherever it may come from. 

So what was it that scared me off?  I took to heart a harsh lesson that Mao Zedong taught the people of China.  It was a period of time that he allowed for more openness & honesty about his government.  In May 1956 he started The Hundred Flowers campaign.  It went like this "let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend."  The idea was to have debate and let everyone (party members) contend over differences of opinion as to how the government (Mao's communist China) was working.  After the brave ones began to debate and express their opinions, Mao had changed his mind.  Or, was it his plan all along to find out those in his party that did not support him and his methods.  Unfortunately for those that spoke out against the established order it turned out that a harsh winter came instead.  Those 300,000 discontents were rooted out and jailed, or banished to labor camps or worse.  So was the opening of a modest liberalism (freedom) a ruse to see who believed what?

I worry that we live in a day of "Let a hundred flowers bloom."  We all believe that we have freedom of speech and that we can do or say basically whatever we want.  Nevertheless, everything we do online, whether it is a blog, a tweet, an email, a search, a purchase, a facebook posting, is tracked and saved.  We and our information are categorized and sold to the highest bidder.  The bidder is an auction done by an algorithm in split seconds.  So we think well it is mostly just to send us more personalized advertising aimed at our specific likes or dislikes.  But is it possible that it could be more than that?  If not now, then maybe later.  Why are we so heavily surveilled?  Why are they storing all our information?  Oh yes, I remember now.  It is so we will be safe.  And then there is always "well if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear."  And when did America take away our expectation for privacy? 

I see much is changing and it is happening rapidly....!  I just keep wondering if this is a good time to plant a 100 flowers because soon summer will end and a harsh cold freeze will come for sure.