About censorship

American media are constantly lambasting China for censoring the internet. They do have a point: BBC News and Wikipedia, to name just two websites, are still unavailable in China, unless you enter through the back door. I will never condone censorship, because it's stupid. Chairman Mao was also opposed to censorship. Revolutionary ideas can never grow and prosper isolated and protected in a greenhouse. They can only grow and thrive in a live-and-death struggle against counter-revolutionary ideas. Censoring counter-revolutionary ideas doesn't do the Revolution any good. Yes, there was a lot of censorship in Mao's time, because the censors didn't understand Mao's thinking.

Some idiots will no doubt argue that the United States is the paradise of free speech. Think again, the U.S. military blocked access on the Pentagon's web servers to websites including YouTube and MySpace. Why? Because soldiers with their boots on the ground in Iraq might divulge military secrets. Yes, perhaps they could. But only soldiers using computers in internet cafes linked to the Pentagon's network are blocked from accessing those websites. Those with their own laptops and access to a commercial internet service provider can still access the banned sites. This is called discrimination and moreover exposes the Pentagon's lie that the military is worried about security. (The Times: Troops lose video link with home as Army puts a block on MySpace, Blogs of war win gunner top prize)

Poor soldiers are banned from telling military secrets online; the richer, with their own laptops and commercial internet access, may still do so. This is called stupid censorship. It is affecting morale among the rank-and-file occupation troops in Iraq. From the American point of view, that's a really stupid outcome. But maybe it's good for the resistance :-)