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Who We Are: An Open Letter
to the Old Media
Rick Fisk
Lew
Rockwell.com
Friday January 4, 2008
Reality for you, Old Media representatives and executives,
is self-fulfilling. That is, the reality broadcast through
the airwaves and printed on dead wood has for so long influenced
the way that the general public perceives reality, it has
become inconceivable that a time would come when your pictures
and words would no longer drive public opinion.
I am writing this to you as a final warning. That time has
already arrived. Whether or not Dr. Paul threw his hat in
the ring, it was inevitable. With the advent of the Internet,
people from all over the world, able to tell their own stories
and reflect their own perceptions to willing eyes and ears,
have provided an awakening and shake at the very foundations
of what you currently perceive to be reality.
When your advertising agencies began collecting demographic
information and targeting consumers as collective groups who
thought as one, that was the beginning of the end for you.
When our own government started aiding and abetting this collectivism
through expanded census – defying the very nature and
intent of a census – the demise of media influence was
propelled further. Your agencies and marketing professionals
kept refining the data, methods and messages you directed
toward these groups until we, who were once just open-mouthed
consumers, have finally slipped through your fingers.
(Article continues below)
I was there when it began as were many of my colleagues –
when the "Internet" was a few land-line-connected
mainframes via 300-baud modems and the government's idea of
electronic mail was less timely than the U.S. Postal service.
Its development began slowly. In 1986, we were still using
UUCP to send each other messages over the Internet and USENET
to broadcast our opinions to anyone who could subscribe. In
1991, the web browser and HTTP arrived. Your reporting of
this occurred only in those papers and television programs
directed toward that demographic of college-educated geeks
whom you thought cared about such things. You certainly didn't
cover it as the earth-shattering, reality-altering event that
it was.
Tim Berners-Lee's contribution to the Internet (and those
who have refined HTTP) was as important as Gutenberg's creation
of the practical printing press. But you really didn't see
it coming. Had the general population conformed to the reality
you were broadcasting and printing at the time, we'd probably
never have moved from zero to 100 billion worth of e-commerce
per year in the U.S. by the time 16 years had passed.
Now, once again, we are at a time when you are witnessing
history but are not aware of its significance. I'm talking
about the Ron Paul Revolution.
Consider this: In 1991, the general population in the U.S.
was not favorable to gun control. About 42% of the population
favored a ban on handguns. But propaganda that you produced
and published promoted the idea that the second amendment
was an anachronism in this modern age and actually a danger
to society. By 1993 53% favored gun control. Your coverage
and commentary of high-profile shooting crimes and dubious
opinion polls helped to solidify the view that gun control
was a national desire and thus the Brady Bill finally made
it through Congress. This was similar to what happened leading
up to the Gun Control Act of 1934. Old Media characterization
of Chicago's mob wars helped to give Congress the public support
to pass, in direct violation of the constitution, the first
national gun-control law. In 1993, most of the gun-crimes
were committed by the hands of criminals profiting from drug
prohibition but the sensational "postal" incidents
were what carried the news day.
Finally, on April 19, 1993, 84 men, women and children were
burned to death at the hands of Federal Police, ostensibly
to enforce provisions of the 1934 law and its revisions of
1968. Most of you in the Old Media still do not realize what
a galvanizing event this was. On its ten-year anniversary,
you were still publishing already-rebutted stories in an attempt
to justify the Federal Government's actions.
In 2007, when the Virginia Tech gunman killed so many, your
polls showed that a majority of the respondents were in complete
opposition to any gun control measures as a response to that
tragic event. What happened? The Internet happened. Between
1994 and 2007, pro-second amendment writers, both professional
and amateur, made their case for the constitution and the
wisdom of the founding fathers. For many, re-doubled efforts
were fueled by Waco. And Ron Paul stood alone in Congress
during many of those years defying the status quo and defending
the constitution.
The same sort of thing occurred in 1776. The Boston Massacre,
a galvanizing, violent event, occurred six years before Thomas
Paine's Common Sense propelled a small band of freedom-seekers
into a formidable movement which finally freed itself from
the chains of the British Empire. You can look back on the
years leading up to the colonist's war with the British and
see some amazing similarities to what is occurring today.
When the Old Media was new, before the collectivist targeting
of people as "consumers" and when ordinary colonists
were printing their own newspapers, a Revolution had begun.
The colonists were the subjects of a tyrannical empire which
continued to erode their liberties and fortunes in order to
prosecute unnecessary and belligerent wars; enriching Rulers
who had little or no concern for their subject's interests.
Men, women and children from varied political and religious
backgrounds grew tired of the tyrants who wished to rule them
and banded together to promote liberty and independence. They
produced an amazing variety of artifacts to promote these
ideas and to turn public opinion to their way of thinking.
Silver flatware engraved with pro-Liberty images, paintings,
drawings, poems, songs, tea sets, signs, pamphlets, letters,
quilts and flags. The ingenuity, optimism and apparently inexhaustible
enthusiasm made the revolution's success possible.
And so, while you keep scratching the surface and proclaiming
that we are just a bunch of kooks and geeks who spend all
of our time on the Internet, we, the modern revolutionaries,
are also engaging in the same sorts of activities as did our
predecessors. We've written poems, songs, and pamphlets. We've
produced videos, radio shows and newspaper ads. We've launched
a blimp, painted signs on barns, houses and cars. We've raised
10 million dollars in two one-day fund raising events. We've
put our candidate in the top-tier of fund raising. We've voted
him the top contender in almost every Internet poll, in more
than half of the straw-polls held around the country and have
mobilized over 80,000 volunteers (and growing) for the cause
of liberty.
We've organized rallies in every state, many of which have
been attended by thousands of real-life individuals who crave
freedom and still you keep pretending that we're going to
fizzle out or simply go away, embarrassed by defeat, when
in fact we're enjoying a healthy and steady rate of growth.
While you've rejected change and cling to your old ways,
we've embraced change. When you tried to tell us about the
"new economy" we recognized it for what it was:
The old Federal Reserve–driven boom-and-bust centrally-planned
economy. We're not buying what you have to sell and in some
cases, we're even shorting your stock and profiting from your
demise.
We're young, old, Republican, Libertarian, Democrat, Anarchist,
Green, Constitutionalist, Christian, Muslim, Jews, Atheist,
Pagan, homeschooling, no-TV-watching, TV-watching, raw milk-drinking,
pasteurized milk-drinking, farmer's market-shopping, alternative
building, single, divorced, 2.5 kid-having, 3-car-having,
bicycle-riding, fitness-fanatic, farmer, no-car-having, sedentary,
public school–attending, Gay, Straight, Black, Yellow,
Red, Brown, White, Man, Woman, child. We're the demographic
group to whom you have never marketed. We believe that we're
smart enough to manage our own affairs and don't need government
hand-outs.
We're tired of being told about a Social Security trust fund
that never existed, a government that is here to help us and
an income tax that really, really does make us liable to pay
– cross our hearts and hope to die (just don't read
the law please). We're tired of being treated like children.
We treat our own children much better than the bureaucrats,
whom you constantly claim have our best interests at heart,
treat us.
We're tired of being told that we should live our lives in
fear of people six thousand miles away; who hate us because
we're free, when we aren't actually free. We're tired of being
told that every encroachment upon our freedoms is justified
because the world is "different now." Different
from what? Does our dictator wear a different brand of suit
than the one whose country was bombed into oblivion on his
orders?
Whether you are yourselves frightened, or you just want us
to be frightened, we’re giving up fear.
We. Are. No. Longer. Afraid.
If there is just one message beyond what you find at the
surface, take that with you. We’re past fear, we’ve
gone beyond cynicism and our apathy has been cured.
Perhaps you could understand if you would only allow yourself
one moment to take Dr. Paul’s utterances seriously.
However, if you won't move beyond the surface and won't take
even a moment to imagine what it would be like to live in
a truly free society, then you will see your fortunes reversed.
As much as we'd love you to join us, we understand that you
may want to cling to the status quo. We apologize for the
inconvenience but the status quo just will not do. Allowing
a continuance of the status quo will render us all penniless
and at the mercy of the same people who are now managing us
into bankruptcy.
Yours in Freedom,
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INFOWARS: BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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