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Little Red Book Draws Government Attention
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Dec 17, 2005 04:44 PM
from the they-have-nothing-better-to-do? dept.
from the they-have-nothing-better-to-do? dept.
narcolepticjim writes "An unnamed Dartmouth student was visited by Homeland Security for requesting a copy of Mao Zedong's Little Red Book for a class project." From the article: "The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand's class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents' home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said."
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And if you are lonely this holiday season... (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/offer-listing/083 512388X/ref=dp_olp_2//102-9865629-6948961?conditio n=all [amazon.com]
Re:And if you are lonely this holiday season... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, hey... (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks, I'll be here all day.
Re:Well, hey... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't be so sure of that.
Yours,
The NSA
Re:Well, hey... (Score:5, Funny)
Remember Kids... (Score:5, Insightful)
Freedom Is Slavery
Ignorance Is Strength
(http://www.studentsfororwell.org/ [studentsfororwell.org])
US college students starting peasant revolutions (Score:5, Interesting)
There's definitely a major major threat that college students reading Mao's Red Book are going to go out and start peasant revolutions - here in the US they'd need to learn to sing country music first, and then they'd find that most of the farms have been taken over by large agribusinesses like Tyson Chicken and Archer-Daniels-Midland, who've got other ways to be connected to power. I mean, sure, the Little Red Book was popular reading back in the 1960s, since the US hadn't had a Cultural Revolution and reading was still legal, but the Feds are starting to catch up with Mao.
At least they don't have to worry about anybody reading "Das Kapital" and believing Marxist economics - it's a really dull read and the economics are transparently bogus, unlike the Communist Manifesto which is at least short and enthusiastic.
This is unfortunately predictable (Score:5, Insightful)
government is given power, it is human nature to abuse it. What I
don't understand is why people fall hook, line, and sinker, for the
same techniques throughout history over and over again.
1) Instill fear in the population somehow, by either orchestating or latching on to
a catastrophic event,
2) Tell the population that you will take care of it, blame enemies of the state,
3) Go to war, claim critics of the war are unpatriotic, out of touch, part of an "elite".
This is all classic power grab politics, and yet it happens again and again in
history.
Why do people not learn from history? It is clear that those in power have a
vested interest in having a sheeple populace. A critical thinking, well informed
electorate, is the biggest enemy to would be dictators in a democratic society.
Start with the children. I guess fear really is the mind killer. And, at the risk of
pulling a Godwin, two quotes from Hermann Goering, leader of Hitler's Luttewaffe.
"Education is dangerous - Every educated person is a future enemy"
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Finally, just a minor nit. The submitter claims the student was a "Dartmouth" student, whereas the article states that the student was from "U Mass-Dartmouth".
Re:This is unfortunately predictable (Score:5, Insightful)
Human nature wants someone to protect us, we want to believe the world is a happy place and all will be well. Because if we look in the mirror we see someone we don't like and a world we can't stand.
It works the same way religion does. If you look at something else, you don't have to see the real world. It's the same reason so many body builders work so hard to get great bodies. They often hate the person inside so much they want to change it.
People believe what they are told.. because if they don't, they end up broken..
This could never happen in America (Score:5, Funny)
Where at least I know I free...
hand me that handbasket, please... (Score:5, Funny)
Memorize this phrase... (Score:5, Insightful)
-jcr
down load it here (Score:5, Informative)
Time for some critical thinking here (Score:5, Interesting)
Nevertheless, I find the details fishy:
- Why would a student have to write down a SSN for a book loan, but not have to write down the class for which he is requesting the book?
- If he *did* have to write down his class, then why would the NSA waste resources on this case?
- Why would a book by Mao be on a watch list? Surely the NSA isn't having flashbacks to the 1950's!
- Why does it seem just a little too convenient that this unnamed student is being investigated by the NSA while doing research for a class on "fascism and totalitarianism"?
- Why are none of Robert PontBriand's classes [umassd.edu] (the professor in question, according to TFA) listed as "fascism and totalitarianism"?
No doubt there are good answers to these questionsNot to spoil the paranoia... (Score:5, Informative)
Not that this excuses the utterly retarded HomeSec nonsense, of course.
SSNs as College Student ID Numbers (Score:5, Informative)
There are way too many US colleges that routinely violate the privacy of their students and expose them to identity theft by using their Social Security Number as a student ID number, because it's ostensibly unique and they sometimes also need it if the student's an employee or has a government loan. Fortunately neither school I attended did that, but it's extremely common. Similarly, many US states use the SSN as a driver's license number, and all of them collect the SSN in keep it in their databases. And many medical insurance companies use SSNs as a customer ID number (HIPAA's changing that a bit, but Medicare's still based on SSNs so they usually need it anyway.) And too many companies use SSNs as an employee ID. It's appalling, but get used to it.
Re:Wait, WTF??!?!?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wait, WTF??!?!?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
The governments are paranoid of anything with knowledge, scared they'll lose their grip around the publics neck. A book or a bomb.. in the right hands a single word can change the world..
Re:Wait, WTF??!?!?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
To the Powers that Be, a single book is far more dangerous than any weapon of mass destruction, real or imagined. As was once said (Henry Peter Brougham),
Let the people start to read, to educate themselves, and how the hell are you going to rule them?
Re:Wait, WTF??!?!?!? (Score:5, Funny)
I missed the part where requesting a copy of Karma Sutra triggers a visit from Kenneth Star
Re:quick (Score:5, Funny)
Not yet, but if your plan works the DHS will get increased funding for more agents to investigate the "epidemic of thinking".
Re:Now you know (Score:5, Insightful)
To quote Will Rogers, "Be happy you don't get all the government you're paying for."
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
But a *book*? And what's more, a book that contains nothing but *quotations*? It's not even the anarchist's cookbook or something - just a collection of quotes. Sure, it was Mao who wrote it, but seriously - this is no more justified than McCarthyism was. You could just as well advocate paying someone a visit for trying to obtain a copy of, say, de bello gallico (Julius Caesar was a dictator, too, and not exactly squeamish when dealing with his enemies).
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A little skepticism? (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of enforcing constitutionally protected freedom of speech, its better for you to choose what people can read. Your constitution doesnt really matter.
yup, there's no chance that anyone could possibly read the book and not come away a devout communist. Yup, no one has ever read the writings of such figures purely to try and figure out how they think, with the understanding that it will lack a true representation of what happened to the people.
If you choose this repression, then you are simply walking down the same path that Mao himself followed.