[Dean's World] Mary Madigan: Ideological purity

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Ideological purity
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1172765839.shtml


   A short time after I joined the Dean's World, Dean posted this on the
   issue of [1]Little Parrots?

     I recently saw a comment on another blog suggesting that the
     contributing writers to Dean's World are basically my little
     parrots. It's not the first time I've seen such an intimation...

     ...You know, every one of the Dean's World contributors--whether
     they're someone I've asked to take over for a few days, or someone
     I've asked to become a permanent contributor--has his or her own
     blog, over which I exert no control whatsoever. Also, I have never
     once told any contributor what position to take on any issue. These
     people have a free hand, and unless I think they've gone completely
     nuts (it hasn't happened yet) they have a free hand to do or say
     whatever they want.

     In terms of full disclosure, on ocassion one of the contributors
     has asked my opinion on something before they published it. That
     hasn't been common; I can think of less than a dozen such instances
     in the last year. When it has happened, I have tried hard to
     restrict my comments to things like, "I think you made your point
     poorly here, and you might want to clean up this other part
     here..."

     Also, once in a blue moon, I'll shoot a note to a contributor and
     say, "Hey, I'd love to read your comments about X."

     But--scout's honor--that's it.

     I challenge you to find any professional publication about which
     you can say anything even remotely similar.

   Now Dean has launched a campaign promoting [2]"ideological purity" on
   this blog. Is there any professional publication about which one can
   say anything even remotely similar?

   Well, it's not a professional publication, but the phrase "ideological
   purity" is most often associated with Mao and his Socialist Education
   Movement. Members of the Chinese government, who know something about
   that kind of thing, called their current crackdowns on freedom a
   [3]"campaign for ideological purity against the West"

   The Mao/Ideological purity comparison was also made here on [4]Dean's
   World, in a post about China's new hard-liners titled [5]Ideological
   purity on the Internet by Ron Coleman.

   In this post , Ron quoted from a Yahoo news article:

     Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to "purify" the
     Internet, state media reported on Wednesday, describing a top-level
     meeting that discussed ways to master the country's sprawling,
     unruly online population...

     Hu, a strait-laced communist with little sympathy for cultural
     relaxation, did not directly mention censorship.

   Censors never do directly mention censorship these days. Instead, they
   find an unappealing label to stick on the groups they want to censor,
   to separate them, to classify them as 'other'. They thus find a means
   to condemn 'other' opinions that are, in no traditional or legal way
   treasonous, crazy, violent or criminal.

   In Hu's case, he called the people he wants to censor "internet
   users.."

     ...[Hu] made it clear that the Communist Party was looking to
     ensure it keeps control of Chinas Internet users, often more
     interested in salacious pictures, bloodthirsty games and political
     scandal than Marxist lessons.

   He's not censoring, he's just dealing with the bad foks out there, the
   'other'; the salaciousm the bloodthirsty, the politically scandalous,
   the internet users.

   Of Hu's actions and censorship in general, Ron said:

     The Internet is, or perhaps more accurately encompasses many things
     including, a moral cesspool. Free societies have by and large
     surrendered to this risk, preferring the very real risk of social
     harm to what they regard as the intolerable cost of censorship. How
     China goes about making its way on this issue, regardless of our
     view of it, will be objectively interesting and will matter beyond
     the borders of Middle Earth.

   Of Chinese actions and Hu, [6]Dean said:

     They will initially think they have succeeded.

     They will fail.

   Dean, I am asking you to reconsider this purity test. It is your blog
   and you should do what you think is best.

References

   1. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1110407737.shtml
   2. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1172621961.shtml
   3. http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2490.html
   4. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1169670080.shtml
   5. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1169670080.shtml
   6. http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1169670080.shtml#101630