Freedom is what I say it is!

Isn't it rather peculiar how similar the responses by the 'intellectual class' are, irrespective of which university they live under in. Consider this ineffectual man's diatribe against the journalistic kudos of Mark Steyn here: http://www.thejournalismdoctor.ca/Blog.php/7/  and  Mark Steyn's brilliant (if lengthy) response here: http://www.steynonline.com/1516/the-shagged-sheep.

I am so tired of hearing the same old blowhards telling the same willing sycophants how distressing the truth is to hear. What is really being communicated by said blowhards is; that they want to hear only what they want to hear and anyone disagreeing with them is immoral/a liar/unprofessional/dangerous etc, etc. http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_its_not_hate_speech_if_the_left_says_it_later/

Unfortunately having lived for many years within a totalitarian system I have witnessed firsthand the initial stages of total control. The official strangling of democratic debate begins with an 'academic' appraisal of the differences between freedom and irresponsibility, and leads inevitably to a clamping down by the 'authorities' on any 'unapproved' speech...unapproved that is by other than the official elite.

Anybody who has lived under such a regime can tell you that is no freedom at all.

I would implore all Australians to learn to live with uncomfortable opinions from those with whom you might deservedly disagree, rather than to choose the unpalatable 'peace' that comes from handing censorship of opinion into the hands of politicians or 'intellectuals' who think they know better than you.

That is the beginning of a slippery slope into a hell of your own making.