Freedom

I have a highlighter pen.  Please try not to be jealous.  They are really cheap at the shops, but you can have this one if you want it.  I will get another.  The reason I mention it is I have it to highlight bits of the book I am reading.  The thing is, if I used it today the page I am on would be just about totally coloured.
It is a speech by a guy called Adlai Stevenson.  He is talking about patriotism but as is my custom, I see if stuff relates to other things as well.  Something I just read sticks out in my mind.  He said “To strike freedom of the mind with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly subtlety.”
One of the reasons that stood out to me was the use of the word old.  What he said was said more than 50 years ago.  It was old then, but it seems it is still alive.  It looks like so much assumes a shiny new coat, but it is the “same old, same old.”
Today I see countries falling for that.  It appears to me something new is emerging.  There are blocks where freedom of the mind is discouraged in the name of the state.  It is the same with religion.  Galileo proposed the earth was not the centre of the universe and had to recant.  Science was seen as a threat.  To me it is not.  I will not embrace lies, but what is proven falls into place.
Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I need to be behind the walls of a totalitarian state to encounter the same old foe.  Cloaked differently but the same.  I am thinking of social media.  It seems I can say what I like, as long as it conforms to the accepted thinking.  If it does not, I am howled down.
It seems to me the norm of the time so often changes.  I am thinking of diets.  What is in favour one day is proved later to be dangerous.  It sort of reminds me of a person who is drowning at sea.  They grasp onto anything, but it does not matter what they grab, they still need to be rescued.
When I sat down to write this, I thought the whole page of the book I am reading would be covered.  Instead it was just one sentence.  “To strike freedom of the mind with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly subtlety.”  I had better look at the rest of the sentence.  To me ugly is ugly, no matter how pretty it is made to look.  I find there are few things worse than one lie mixed with a lot of truth.  Compromise is finding what I can agree with.  I need to decide what I can compromise.  That to me is the subtlety. 
Some things I cannot afford to rush into.  There may be a trap hidden in the grass.