(Answer at the end).
HYPOCRISY
By Charles Kocian
“I am not expressing an opinion, but did promise to conduct this poll. Should Assange and Snowden be pardoned?” Elon Musk tweeted asking users if whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange should be pardoned. After 20 hours and 2 million votes almost 80% wanted to pardon both, which have been living in exile since exposing corruption and surveillance by world rulers.
Elon Musk Twitter asking for a free-speech-poll.
“I like Hitler.” The famous rapper Kanye West said in an interview with the “conspiracy theorist” Alex Jones of InfoWars. He added that he sees “good things about Hitler.” He also said that Hitler invented the highways and the microphone. “You can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that. I’m done with the classifications; every human being has something of value that they brought to the table. Especially Hitler!” Kayne West said.
Some days later he posted a six-star image with a swastika inside, and Elon Musk shuts down its Twitter account. Is here a Pandora’s hypocrisy?
Was Galileo accused of a “conspiracy theory” in the Renaissance? The answer is yes and they punished him for revealing a fact of nature: the Earth moves.
Galileo’s trial by the Inquisition.
The Inquisition accused Galileo of heresy. He was guilty because he dares to use his eyes and observe through its telescope, he dares to make some measurements and conclude that Copernicus was correct: The Earth was moving around the sun. Its conclusion was based on its direct perception of the planets through its telescope. But for the Catholic Church he was just a “conspiracy theorist”, a heretic working for Satan who wanted to weak the power of the Catholic Church.
Medieval Inquisition torture.
So, when authorities base their power not in sensory perceivable facts, not in cause and effect, not in logic, not in the scientific method, but arbitrary whims, when their beliefs are based in faith and revelations, at the long term, they lose their power, and that happened to the Inquisition.
Today, instead of accusing “conspiracy theories” in the Internet, people should make their own independent investigations, to conclude with their own minds, if the theory is a false conspiracy or a true fact or something in the middle. To do that man must use its own reason, based on evidence, that is, use its critical thinking skills and the scientific method.
Scientific method scheme.
So, to avoid the same mistake of the Inquisition, today’s rulers and ruled should ask themselves: is this “conspiracy theory” based on observed evidence or arbitrary revelations? Am I being rational, objective and impartial to think about this or victim of propaganda?
Twitter will always have a broken wing if some “conspiracy theories” are banned from Internet and some others not. This looks like when the Catholic Church choose to burn some prohibited books. Who was making the choice? With what moral standards? The truth is that to rule the ruled, rulers cannot allow free-speech without hypocrisy. If Twitter wants to allow free-speech without any hypocrisy, in any topic, the Pandora’s Box will be open. The consequences are dangerous as it was to JFK.
Catholic Church burning illicit “conspiracy theory” books in Medieval Age.
The Pandora’s box story started in Greek mythology. Hesiod’s c. 700 B.C. poem reported that Pandora’s curiosity led her to open a box that released the worst upon mankind. To “open a Pandora’s box”, means to do something that will cause many unforeseen problems.
Another version is that the box was opened by Epimetheus, whose name means “Afterthought” and Hesiod comments that he is “he whom mistakes made wise”. Rather than a named female, it was a generic “foolish man” who opened the box out of curiosity and let it content inside to escape.
Pandora opening the box.
In the Renaissance the story of the box was revisited by some writers such as Andrea Alciato in his Emblemata, and by the Neo-Latin poet Gabriele Faerno in his collection of fables. Also, Giulio Bonasone showed the Roman virtues flying up into the air after the box was opened. These virtues were identified by their names: security (salus), harmony (concordia), fairness (aequitas), mercy (clementia), freedom (libertas), happiness (felicitas), peace (pax), worth (virtus) and joy (laetitia).
Pandora repents after opening the box.
Other version of the Pandora’s box story says that the box certainly serves as a prison for the evils that Pandora released, but they can affect humanity only once outside the box. Rulers’ secrets revealed? Secrets of history revealed? Will Twitter allow all history secrets get out of Pandora’s box? Was hope also released from Pandora’s box or is just an empty hope that takes away man’s industriousness?
Human, all too human, by Nietzsche.
Friedrich Nietzsche argued in his book Human, All Too Human, that “Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the evillest of evils because it prolongs man’s torment.”
CONCLUSION
If Twitter wants to end hypocrisy and have a rational free-debate on any topic, perhaps it will open Pandora’s box. May be, since Neanderthals, the majority of mankind is still not ready for a hypocrisy-free-society and to love truth-based-on-evidence. Man is a monkey unless he chooses to be rational.
Now answer to question 28.
QUESTION N° 28
“Consciousness” begins with your ideas and ends with your sensory perceptions.
a) True
b) False
The answer is: false, true ideas or fantasies both derive from sensory perceptions.
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