Bob Dylan has been given permission to perform in China, but he has to stay off the harder stuff(political songs: blowin' in the wind, times they are a changin', maggie's farm is a strict no-no).
I can imagine(oops another no-no) some chinki from the Chinese ministry of culture has been given an assignment to listen to all Bob Dylan songs and to see which have a political tinge in them(wish I had that job). I think his job would be made easier if he wikis Bob Dylan still The song censor would be one piece of art, I mean he has to
- Understand English
- Interpret the song lyrics
- Be a pig and strike them down
And still there might be a song that might get interpreted differently by some people like
- Tangled up in blue
- It's all over now
- Like a Rolling Stone etc etc etc
At any rate does'nt it seem like a lot of fuss??!! If China had free speech none of this would be needed.Bob Dylan and his creed have been writing protest songs and still nothing has gotten rosier, In fact Dylan quit doing folk rock because he was sick of record companies exploiting his protest songs to make money!!!!
Now I am not one-of-those-tree-huggers who yell FREE SPEECH/ FREE TIBET/STOP GLOBAL WARMING but going by the "free world" standards this is how I feel represion can be effectively done:
- Give your citizens free speech and fundamental rights and democracy, see as after the initial euphoria the value of free speech come down like Enron stocks(as your citizens would start saying "talk is cheap")
- Create an American/Indian dream so your citizens can chase it without even paying heed to country,society, family or morals & values. Remeber the awesom-er the dream the more un-cohesive the society. Lesser chances of a big angry mob staging a Tahrir Square
- Use free speech to pump in MTV/ POP music/ Justin Beiber/Reality TV/IPL/NASCAR down the throats of a whole generation of adoloscents effectively killing any non-conformity, imagination and unconventionality(but at the same time teach them some archaic traditions in the name of culture and national pride)
- Oh by the way keep the pressure on the generation of adoloscents to chase the dream(call it your dream & look at them go) so they do NOT snap out of the dream.
- There will be brilliant people emerging but they soon will be part of your socio-economic murder machine..the ones that do not sell-out get killed at any rate and get deleted from public memory as fast as data on a RAM chip.
- Not to mention stay in power by creating your own national democratic party, get your relatives and pals in, Keep the bankers and businessmen in the boat. Hell, create an opposition party to with some of your frat buddies, that way even if you lose in the elections still you call the shots. Breed like hell and send them to the best and iviest of ivy league schools. Coz they are the future and should be nurtured
- DO NOT SCREW UP THE ECONOMY...let everyone make money with the dream of getting more money(even if it means nothing coz the inflation screws them)..hell get into free trade alliances, capitalism is here to stay!!!!
NOW You have got yourself a perpetual repression machine...Repress to your heart's content...murder rape & pillage just like the good old days but it has become more hip cool & snazzy !!!!
Remember a Distracted & Fractious Population is a Represseble Population!!!!!
