No More Freedom of Speech...

By Anant Mathur (June 29, 2011)

It's disturbing to see that Political Correctness has taken away our Freedom of Speech and Expression.

Believe it or not Social Media is really messing up everyone's lives. The whole point, I thought, of Social Media was that it gave individuals a way to express themselves with others. But every few days you hear stories of people loosing their jobs because of what they wrote on twitter or facebook. Sometimes people write things as a joke but employer obviously lack a sense of humour and fire such individuals. Is everyone so afraid of bad publicity these days that they're willing to dictate what others have a right to say or not say?

A few days ago it was reported that the real reason Megan Fox is not in Transformers 3 is because Executive Producer Steven Spielberg had her fired. Megan apparently compared Director Michael Bay's on set demands to Hitler, when Bay told Spielberg he asked the director to "fire her right now". My first thought was that it's a publicity stunt because the story came out a week before the release of the film, it could have come out 4 weeks after the film released, but it didn't. If it is a publicity stunt, obviously it's in bad taste.

I find it odd that in today's times the Media can get away with slander and ruining reputations/careers, but the moment a celebrity says something it's totally blown out of proportion and the celebrity has to apologize or take back what they said, doesn't that defeat the purpose of Freedom of Speech and Expression. We supposedly live in a democracy, and the moment you stop someone from expressing themselves you're no better than a dictator telling them what they can or can't do. It should be up to individuals to decide if they want to believe or listen to what a celebrity is saying and decide for themselves whether it is right or wrong - and then if they feel it's wrong, they don't have to agree with it - but don't make the celebrity feel like they have no right to express their opinion. At the end of the day it's just that - Megan Fox's opinion of Michael Bay - it's not written in stone. One shouldn't have to resort to such tactics as having someone fired over it. I'm pretty sure Megan Fox didn't mean Michael Bay is going to have millions of Jewish people killed (because he wants a perfect race of people), not to mention the millions who weren't Jewish, like Hitler did.

What happened to the Jewish people was unfortunate and should never be allowed to happen again. How easily people forget that not too long ago the British controlled India for close to 200 years looting and killing millions - yet Indians have forgiven them. Perhaps Mr. Spielberg can learn something about forgiveness and not be so jumpy every time some says "Hitler".

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Megan's comments by any means, but last I checked she had a right to Freedom of Speech and Expression. I'm sure in the future she'll be more aware knowing how every little thing is blown out of proportion these days.

In 1998, a Hindi film with the title "Hitler" was released, the film has nothing to do with Hitler, it's called that because a Jailer is compared to Hitler. There are many more such examples, should these films and other materials be banned because someone mention a devilish man named Hitler. I would like to believe we have grown enough as a civilization not to be offended by the mere mention of Hitler, so much so that we're not filled with savage rage when we hear the name. How long is Mr. Spielberg going to hold a personal grudge against a dead man who know one cares about any more. You made a great point with an amazing film called Schindler's List about 18 years ago, let's leave it at that. We have the Al Qaida to deal with now, let's concentrate on the present and stop beating a dead horse over something as minuscule as a celebrity's opinion.

Until this incident I was really looking forward to watching Transformers 3 on the big screen, but if this is how shallow and closed minded Mr. Spielberg and Hollywood are (and worst yet if this is a publicity stunt), I don't think I'll be visiting the Cinema Halls this summer to watch Transformers 3 or any other film Mr. Spielberg is connected with in the future.

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