All Comments on 'Information Disease'

Very interesting hypothesis Rob, nicely laid out. Had some experience of this with the Church of Scientology, I worked as a summer labourer on the UK headquarters. The people there were both baffling and baffled. Well done.

Very thought provoking. Interesting idea. Easy to read and your thoughts are very clear. ~Minx

Congratulations on a very well written and thought out piece. You have put forward an insightful and thought provoking perspective which is relevant throughout the world. Thank you.

I enjoyed your work! Good luck in the contest. ~Imp

I hope your essay would get a "W". This is exactly what happen in my country. We are being force fed with information disease every day but are not allowed to practise free speech. Of course they will say "Oh, you have the right to say anything you want to but just watch what you say".

If I've to watch what I say then that is not free speech to me.

Your works are always worth reading and this is exceptional. Good luck!

Really made me stop and do some thinking. I like how you said free speech is the vaccination...brilliant.

And yeah, it is the perfect vaccine-terrfic piece of writing and thought!

I've had these thoughts, but was never able to frame them into coherence the way you have. Very nice!

Well done

The moonies, the hare krishna's, all of those cults had the most success in the county with the largest degree of free speech: The U.S.

And yet you claim that freedom of speech is the vaccine to exactly this type of problem?

Sure availabilty of information is great -- but it's only the beginning:

(Free speech does NOT imply that the information received is correct!)

"Number one, as I said, quality of information.

Number two: leisure to digest it. And

number three: the right to carry out actions based on

what we learn from the interaction of the first two."

- Ray Bradbury

* Fahrenheit 451

There are too many mediums and there is too large a quantity of information

for people with a normal life to digest. And only a small part of it is accurate and accurately described or presented. Have you ever really researched what you see/read/hear? You'd be surpised by how often it's biased and/or incorrect!!!

You bounced back and forth, and after a bit I truly realized what you were getting at. As I said, you can do no wrong. Are you counting?

Is it wrong to be turned on by words that were never intended to be erotic? That was purely awesome, Sir Rob. *kiss*

Very well said Sir.

I know from reading so much during my teen/early adult years, everything I could on cults, (My brother was involved in a small, local cult, and had invited me to his "service." It took only one visit for me to know that there was something very wrong with this "church." They employed many if not all of the same tactics you cited. They learned quickly that I question everything!! I wasn't welcome anymore.) that by depriving one of their connections to family, sleep, and yes, even information; they can literally brainwash you into believing all that they say and do. You learn to not think for yourself, you allow others to think for you.

The lack of information, or Information Diesease. Sadly, it's too widespread and in places such as the USA and other more democratic socities, we often cause ourselves to suffer from this malady. We have so many resources at our fingertips, yet still deny ourselves the right and the responsability to access the information. With the internet, and most, if not all homes have a computer, or at the very least; access to one, so there is no excuse really for suffering from Information disease.

The day we (as a society) allow our freedom of speech to be taken away, is the day that we as a society, need to collectively blow our brains out. We will be nothing more than automated beings, unable to express our thoughts, and desires and needs. We will be nothing less than the dust we are made from. We must all stand up for free speech.

I could go on, but I'm behaving now.

You start paragraph four with the following sentence, "It was through this fact that the cults worked." Sic.

This sentence should correctly read, “It was through this fact that the cults work!" The cults are still out there and just as active as they've ever been.

Its just that the leaders of the larger cults are a little more subtle and publicity shy. And of course there always have been – and still are - the cults who masquerade as so-called legitimate faiths or religions.

Beware of any grouping who appear shy of their so-called beliefs or activities being openly questioned in public!

Watch your backs, and watch your children’s backs; it's a dangerous world out there! Full of “cunning perverts”, “power mad nuts” and folks looking for a way into your pockets, who claim to believe that only they have seen the light!

DC

Very well said. You've tied a root cause into much of our current culture's inability to get beyond our standard paradigms in thinking, even when those paradigms run to exponentially unstainable conclusions.

What's it doing here?

Free speech is the vaccine.......... Good advice for 2021.