Apropos everything and nothing, I have unearthed a beautiful quote from Mussolini which demonstrates the absurd propositions that can come from the mouths of people who are insulated (either by own choice, imposed or because trapped by education/propaganda) from any facts or opinions other than those of the particular orthodoxy they follow or are governed by. That was a rather pompous way of referring to the strange statements that often come from those who argue from within a closed circle of logic.
The statement was made in April 1943 when Fascism was tottering in Italy and Mussolini was restructuring the Party and governmental arrangements in a desperate attempt to bolster his position. In Fascist wartime Italy at a time when it was slowly dawning that the Axis were likely to lose, circumstances where criticism of the government could result in execution, what he said during a speech to the Fascist Party Directorate on 17th April 1943 was:
".... our Press is the most free in the world. It prints whatever it likes because the State comes in with its censorship after the printing. ..."
Breathtaking! When it is known that anything that the government does not like will result in seizure/suppression of the paper and personal repercussions for the publisher/writer, self censorship steps in. And modern Media also tends to self censor even where there is no fear of personal physical threat - just look at Disney's refusal to broadcast Fahrenheit 911, the movie that was made under its auspices.
His refusal, on this matter, to even consider matters outside his particular belief system, even from the point of view that if one knows how one's opposition thinks one can realistically plan how to counter it, is quite evident.
Garth Cartledge
" Despotism sits nowhere so secure as under the effigy and ensigns of Freedom", From Imaginary Conversations of Greeks and Romans (1853) by Walter Savage Landor 1775-1864
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