The obscenity that is the surrender of free speech by SONY Pictures to a little fat bastard in North Korea has my hump in a twist. So, I am departing from my usual religious themed rant to just clear the air...especially for anyone who doesn't see this issue as particularly troubling.
People are reminding me that Sony is a Japanese held company, and thus has political concerns relative to Korea, a centuries old enemy, vis-a-vis the potential of starting a hot war over this idiotic movie. Or they cite the financial exposure in the event of a terrorist attack at a theater as the over riding concern to the Japanese.
To both of those things I say: Bullshit!
Look ... it's very simple: If you want to play in America, reap the benefits of the American
consumer's dollar, then you play by American values. And one of those values is:
WE DO NOT TRUNCATE THE HARD WON FREEDOM OF SPEECH BECAUSE WE ARE COWED BY THREATS FROM SOME TWO BIT 3RD WORLD DICTATOR'S HACKERS.
The ability for a company within our borders to produce and present the ideas words and pictures they want to should not be truncated either by OUR government, or by threat of another government, or by religious fanatics. To bow to that pressure, to let that happen, is counter to American values.
If a foreign company wants to play the American capitalism game then that is the price a foreign company should pay to do business here. If that runs counter to their business philosophy, their cultural imperative, or offends their sensibilities, then sell that segment of your business to a US concern, or just get the hell out.
Okay... I feel better now.
Eggs-sactly!
ReplyDeleteI keep writing and re-writing and then deleting a response Hump. I disagree with you about this hacking thing. They may be so many steps ahead of us that they've already installed malware that is awaiting their commands to roundly fuck our collective sorry ass. I keep deleting because my screed ends up nuking North Korea as the only way out time after time.
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