and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
isaiah 2:4
the hebrew bible, despite its age, is popular today perhaps for one reason, “ugliness.” the bible freely describes the worst of humanity. even the revered, i.e. moses and king david, have their questionable conduct eternally memorialized. the bible’s goal is to provide truth to humanity. to do so, both the good and the bad must be documented.
in theory, humanity can only improve if it knows and accepts its failings. failing are often a starting point for improvement.
when the internet censors via search engine or social media, it is the hi-tech version of burning of books at libraries, homes and schools.
some individual running sectors of the internet believe that they are smarter and more capable of addressing issues of censorship. this recent episode proves them both incompetent and foolish.
as the tianamen square massacre’s anniversary took place, the famous “tank man” was censored by search engines. vice
the “tank man,” a man wearing ordinary clothes, stood in front of a column of tanks and prevented them from moving forward. there is video of the incident. if the internet is uncensored, you should be able to find it.
while tianamen means many things to many individuals, the “tank man” image is worthy of discussion. it is a picture of humanity. an unarmed human standing up to killing machines. it is a portrait of his courage. likewise, the tank operators play an important role. they, as well, showed their humanity. rather than employing their vehicle to run “tank man” over, they, didn’t. they saw a human life they held in the balance. they took the moment to keep their own humanity. it was a brief moment of hope for the future.
while china is upset and concerned over the image, embracing the power of the image and its message of the potentiality of humanity may be a far better approach than censorship.
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be well!!
The Ten Commandments Project 