An American Expat in Southeast Asia

Freedom From Fear

Imagine for just a minute the fear of retribution or worse for simply speaking a word or writing something that might possibly offend someone. Not living in the United States and not enjoying the freedoms that my fellow Americans enjoy, I live with this fear daily, each day when I write out my thoughts here.

The fear that you live under is real, the fear that the hand that feeds you will use the powers that it wields to cut of your nourishment. It is the worst kind of fear, the fear that drives you to take a knife and stab yourself in your soul in the hopes that your own self-sacrifice will be enough to stave off the clenched fist.

There have been many times that I have wanted to speak out on certain sensitive issues, many times that I want to write more on important issues and perhaps give a more in-depth story, but each time I am forced to analyze the dire implications and consequences that I will face should I happen to cross the line. I try to rationalize with myself, I try to be creative at times and perhaps just allude to certain issues in the hope that my readers will be astute enough to read between the lines. This is how self-censorship works.

Self-censorship is the worst kind of censorship because it thrives on hypocrisy, sycophancy, and mendacity. Holding back the tears, there are times when I loath myself for not having the courage as a free man to stand up. But I can rationalize that as well, I think of my family, my friends and my own security and then I say to myself that I am making this self-sacrifice not for myself but for them.

The line is always there for me, It it stationary it does not move and I try hard not to cross it, at times though I do happen to cross that line and I feel my heart race afterwards. On more than one occasion, I have been "reminded" that I have crossed the line. It is always subtle, "we know who you are" or "you can't hide".

Ann Coulter has now crossed the line in America, a line that didn't exist before, a line that is constantly moving lower and lower in the United States. Perhaps no one remembers Eddie Murphy's standup routine in the 80's or Dire Straits' song "Money For Nothing".

But as cultural marxism takes root the United States, things are changing and changing rapidly. What was once considered immoral and obscene when I last lived in the United States is now celebrated. There is no outrage and no one seems to care that Christians are offended on daily basis, but our country's own State department expresses their outrage when a Quran is desecrated.

Championing multiculturism, diversity and tolerance Americans now promulgate what they consider to be enlightened concepts of progression and yet they have unwittingly embraced a pernicious form of relativism that they don't have the foresight to see will eventually culminate ironically into a new form of intolerance. An intolerance to both freedom and democracy.

I think of the country that I miss and love so dearly and wonder how many people feel the same as Dr. Eddison Richardson who stated that:

"This woman should be arrested. There is no room in a free country for words like this. I believe this could be considered a hate crime and should be treated as such!"

It troubles me knowing that there are many more people like Dr. Richardson in the United States and that their numbers are growing unabated.

But what is even more frightening is how many so-called conservatives can collectively sacrifice one of their own for merely highlighting the hypocrisy that abounds. An offensive "word" and an insinuation is enough for Ann Coulter to be punished. How many more words will we be adding to this ever growing "lexicon of offense"? And how much longer before social order and stability become of paramount importance to Americans, much more so than liberty or freedom?

Is it really such a leap of logic for one to foresee that Americans in the near future will justify sacrificing freedom for security?

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