Facebook Basically Buys Our Constitutional Rights

Facebook Jail, lots of people have been there. Talk to the average person on any social media platform today and they will likely have their own stories of censorship. In the past, I was supportive of social media being able to indiscriminately ban or censor whoever they wanted because, in my own words, "They are private entities, who have the right to govern their content. You can open your own website if you don't like it." 

However, my views have changed dramatically over the last week, and it centers around the fact that I myself was also banned for several days and censored for simply stating historical facts about American history that apparently someone didn't like. My account was locked for 6 days, and I was kept from advertising or participating in any groups for nearly a month (that restriction still remains today, February 19th, unless I interact through my backup account, and get this, even my backup account was locked out for several days just because I apparently re-added my friends too fast).

The reason I have changed my views significantly is because of the power that Facebook and other social outlets have over free speech. In my view, it becomes more than just a private business issue when you have control over the speech of the world. The largest speech platforms are all privately owned, which means that corporate powers like Facebook can make the world say only what Facebook would like them to say, or whoever may be influencing Facebook at the time. These days, if you want to speak to other people, your only option is through someone else's service. Even if you open your own website and blog, it's not really your own because it's operating through another provider's server. This is a way that governments and private powers can take our freedoms without any laws. They just buy and own the means through which those freedoms are distributed and exercised. For example, if I buy up all the voting machines, shut them down and say, "I didn't take your voting right. I just exercised my right as a private business owner." The reality is that I did take your right away. Not all service providers are like this, of course. I've been on BlogSpot and Google for years and they've never tried to censor me. In fact, even the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has voiced his support for free speech. But the fact is that enough powers, within Facebook and elsewhere, control public speech to make censorship a problem. Not to mention that Congress basically pulled Mark in front of them and threatened him. 

Now you can buy your own server space on the internet, but that's normally not an option for most people for reasons of money, time, and/or promotional problems. Unless you're already famous, the chances of your server getting huge traffic may be rather small. Even my website and blog, that has over 350,000 visitations so far, was promoted through Facebook posts. The simple fact of the matter is that modern social media has control of our Constitutional rights simply because of how big they are, and I think it's time for the government to reexamine the power that these companies can have to ban and censor.

I think the speech laws of society should also have to be upheld by social media. As long as you're not threatening, bullying or harassing people, inciting violence or spreading clear hate speech like racism, sexism, etc, then the media site should not be able to ban or censor you. As long as you are within those reasonable bounds of decency, your account should be your own personal business. You have the right to your opinions, beliefs and worldviews no matter how much someone else might disagree with them. I have changed my views on social media regulation because I came to realize that those who have massive power over the population, should not have unlimited power. Otherwise, I fear that fascism will come to America wrapped in a terms of service contract.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

I Knew She Was Real That Day

I hadn't had much luck with women by that point in my life, either because they didn't like me or I was too stupid in my youth to recognize the signals (and we can only thank the oppressive social norms of modern society for that). By 2005, I had only been with two women in my life, and one I didn't even sleep with. One might could say it wasn't even an actual relationship because she was not loyal to me at all, in any way. But by that year, a change had also entered my life. I first discovered the Greek Gods as a religion. I did not know all of the Gods or even how to practice Hellenism, but I knew of and felt connections with the Olympians. Aphrodite was one of my closest (and still is).

While I hadn't had a successful romantic life, I knew Aphrodite was the Goddess not only of love but sex and beauty, and it was for the latter two attributes that I decided to pray to Her. My request was simple: make me more attractive to the opposite sex. Each time I prayed for that, I would notice women looking at me more when I was out in public. Aphrodite possibly enhanced my beauty, or perhaps I was beautiful all along and the Goddess helped people notice me more. After my connection with Aphrodite, my romantic and sexual encounters only became more frequent. In 2009, I met the love of my life who would become my wife (I am still married to her to this day). From the first day She blessed me, I knew Aphrodite was real.

Valentine's Day, the day of love, makes me think back onto those early days when the Greek Gods first showed their wonderful selves to me. I don't think Aphrodite cared that I wasn't actually a Hellenist at that time. I was Hellenic in my heart, and She cultivated that into the pious man I am today.

In the Goodness of Aphrodite,

Chris Aldridge.

Tennessee Book Burning Fiasco

Nazi Germany, 1933 (Public Domain)

By now we've all seen the public display of Nazi Germany that took place in Tennessee, climaxing with a Christian bonfire of books that were deemed dangerous, or whatever their half baked logic was. As an historian, such antics are nothing new to my eyes. I think I'm safe to say that the first Christian book burning went all the way back to Paul, who burned ancient Greek and Jewish texts in Ephesus, and was run out of the City. A difference of opinion, belief or worldview has always been enough to send fascists into a craze, and nowadays, it seems that something as frail as a fictional novel can offend them enough to resort to political violence and destruction. 

If they want to waste their money buying books only to burn them, then that's their free speech right, however dumb it may be. I call it a fiasco because it was a complete failure. We no longer live in the days when books could be erased from human eyes. We have publishers and computers now. All the former has to do is push the print button and a new one will come out. They could take a thousand of my own publications and burn them. I will not care, because I still get paid for those thousand copies, and my publishing site can make new ones as soon as the next week. So not only did these radicals do nothing but waste their time, they tarnished their reputation among free people. 

What worries me most is that this kind of mentality seems to have a significant presence in America these days, mainly among the conservative states. While it's possible these people may just be doing it to get attention and create shock value, I grew up and came from a highly conservative area in North Carolina. It got so bad by 2013 that the state government tried to pass a bill declaring North Carolina to be a Christian State and exempt from federal law. Fortunately it failed by the hands of the House Speaker at the time, Thom Tillis. But I know there is hostility toward the idea of a free people, that's one reason I got my family and I out of North Carolina and to a free state. Equally regrettable, it does no good to tell these people they are fascist because they already know. They think it's a good thing. They believe that there is a justified persecution. 

America has always had people who hate freedom. There were radical Christians in the colonial days who opposed the Constitution because of the first amendment. Whereas America is a land where many different ideas and beliefs can freely circulate among whoever may decide to willingly to hold them. So the good news is that there have always been more Americans who believe in freedom, so what can we do about the freedom haters? Vote. Quite simply, vote every time there is an election, no matter the office. We defeat fascism by closing the government to it. We cannot force people to change their minds, but we can make sure they never gain power.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

How Do You Release All Your Doubts?

"I think you're awesome," a very close friend of mine said. "Why?" I asked. "Because you're so spiritual. I wish I had your faith. You have no doubts at all."

I do not consider myself to be anything special or profound. I'm just a man being himself and doing what he loves and believes in. But at the same time, there are some people in my life who think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. And there is certainly something undeniable in what they said, I have always had incredibly strong faith no matter what has happened or hasn't happened in my life. Growing up dirt poor, struggling through my young adult life, having a premature child, enduring years of hardship as a parent; there were many things that would attack the spirit of some other people. But not me. Why is that and how do I release myself from doubt?

For starters, I think my spiritual upbringing plays a part, even though it was an entirely different theology. Several religions, despite their vast disagreements, can at times agree on some human values, or at least not devalue them. I grew up in a religiously conservative community and environment in the South. Enduring faith as a concept in and of itself, was instilled into me. I was taught that belief in deity was vital, and simply childish to only be loyal when something goes your way, and turn your back when something goes wrong. In short, a tremendous sense of honor. 

Is it also possible that someone could be born with inherent faith? I certainly think so. We are born with schema, which enables us to look for Higher Powers in the universe, and so we are always looking for Gods even from the time we are born. For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with the natural world and could always see the powers and minds behind it all. I still retain that mindset and interpretation to this day. I can't disbelieve in the Gods just as I cannot disbelieve in anything else around me. I can't disbelieve in the Sun, Moon, the forests or oceans because they're obviously there.

Finally, I would call it bliss. I've heard people in the Hellenic community say that we do not worship the Gods because we want something in return, but simply because it makes our lives more blissful. I cannot logically deny that the Gods have given me so many blessings and helped me through all of my hardships. Yes, life has had trials, but the Gods are the goodness we can always experience, and that can help us overcome our problems.

How do I release all doubts? I suppose it would boil down to a simple factor. No matter how long they've been in the religion, whenever a fellow Hellenist tells me they are scared or worried, I always say, you still haven't learned to trust the Gods yet, my friend.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge. 

Ask and The Gods Will Tell You, Every Time

One of the most common questions asked by atheists and agnostics today is, "If there is God or Gods, why are there so many bad things in the world?" But the thing is, there wouldn't be anywhere near as many if we would listen to the Gods every time. 

In the opening of The Odyssey, Zeus is talking to the other Gods about the tragedy of Agamemnon's wife and her lover, who chose to murder Agamemnon. Zeus says, humans blame us Gods for evil, when it is nothing but their own folly. I even sent my Messenger, Hermes, to warn them, and they would not listen, and now they face destruction. Athena finishes the dialogue by saying, may this be the fate of all like them.

The people who ask the question above often don't realize that they are repeating the same error that was made thousands of years ago, and that Zeus has already answered them. They are still laying blame upon the Gods for evil, instead of their own refusal to listen. The Gods would tell us all good things to do to make our lives and the world a better place, if we would only obey their words instead of our own desires which we often allow to take the place of wisdom. Humans listen to their prejudices, hate, greed and destructive desires more than to good, and the Gods know this. Thus, the evil in the world is the fault of humans, not the Gods, and the result shall be the fate of all likewise.

If a murderer, robber, rapist, and every other criminal would listen to what the Gods say, they would not be a murderer, robber, rapist or any criminal. If we would ask the Gods whether we should cheat our fellowman or be honest by them and listen to the answer, we would eventually never know what a lie or a falsehood is. What's even more revealing is that deep down, we already know the answers, because the Gods put their goodness inside of us and the world. Without asking, governments know they should help the poor instead of gluttonizing the rich. And what of disease and illness? We can solve that, too. But we have vaccines that people refuse to take. We have hospitals and technologies that care more about money than human beings. We have natural remedies, like cannabis, that we have kept illegal for countless years, and is still illegal in many places, despite the fact that it's been proven to be a miracle drug for many patients. The Gods gave and are willing to give us the power and knowledge to end about 99% of Earth's problems.

The Gods are not our babysitters, nor did they come to this world with the intention of attaching strings to us like puppets. It is our duty to make something great of our existence, otherwise there is no purpose to said existence.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Chris Aldridge.

We Can Sometimes See Where The Gods Threw Monsters

As a philosopher and a Greek mythologist, I do a lot of thinking about the latter with the maps of the former. One area that has always interested me is seeing how the tales of old still prove true today.

The Greek myths and Greek stories often require more than just a surface analysis. Most modern scholars, historians and even mythologists have yet to realize this. I think that some of the things the Gods did, were things that they kept doing as time went on, a progressive action like evolution itself. It wasn't a one and done kind of thing. Just as order has remained a constant, so have the actions of the Gods to maintain that order, balance and preferred universe. One of the most well known among these actions was the banishment of rebellious Titans and monsters, often imprisoned in the depths of the Earth away from humanity and the light above. In their prisons, they are kept from bringing harm, chaos and disorder to the surface of civilization and the world itself. That which was an affront to the Gods, or abhorred, was locked away. In the event that the monsters were still able to remain a threat to humanity, such as with the Minotaur, the Gods sent Heroes to kill them, such as Theseus.

The more we learn about the science of remote places far in the depths or the corners of the Earth, the more we see monstrous creatures even to this day. Let's take a dive into the ocean for instance. At one thousand meters, light can no longer reach the water, which means there is nothing but absolute darkness from this point onward. This depth also means that humans could not reach it in their natural form, nor could anything at this level or onward reach humans or general life above. By the time two thousand to four thousand meters is reached, which is double and quadruple the depth of when the light ceases, we start to see the monsters of the water, such as the angler fish, dragon fish, viper fish, fang tooth fish, and the giant squid - hideous and deadly creatures kept from the sight and reaches of the world above. And these are just the monsters we know of. Only 5% of the ocean has been explored and mapped. 

All over the world, there are still places humans have not been, deep in caves or miles beneath the surface of the crust. What else has been put away in the bowels of the Earth or the universe itself, and for what reasons? All round us, each and every day, we still live with the ancient Greek stories and beliefs. They are not bound to an ancient past which is alien to us. They still form the realities of our world.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Courage and Honor,

Chris Aldridge. 

Toxicity Overhead: Struggles Of Men With Social Norms

I don't think we realize just how negatively social norms can impact men as well as women. We tend to think of women because they are the most oppressed by them, but men have their share of undue and inhumane burdens placed on them by ridiculous standards of masculinity perpetuated by our modern culture. These standards normally take the form of what we have come to call Toxic Masculinity, which can be just as harmful to men as women. 

When I am driving home, there is an electronic billboard as I enter the City. One thing it has advertised in recent times is gambling, telling the viewer that they have the opportunity to win big, and the picture is of a smiling man being kissed by a woman. To a man, this says that if you get lots of money, you'll get the women, so come try for it. Men are commonly told this a lot, "no romance without finance." We are taught that our value is in how much money we have, and the only worth we have to the opposite sex is that dollar amount. If a man fails to live up to the success of being wealthy enough to basically buy a woman, he has failed in his manhood. Once this has been established in the minds of men, all of their self-esteem is in this flawed ideal. It also hurts women because it trains them to look for money alone, and not necessarily a partner who is good for them.

For the longest time, I even viewed myself through this scope. I would think back to some of the women I fell in love with and lost, and convinced myself that if I had been rich, they would have never left me. And for argument's sake, that might have been true in some cases. But it keeps men from finding true love, and creates immense self-loathing the vast majority of the time. Men are bombarded with sexual goals by social norms. Not only are we told the above, but also that our success as a man is marked by how many women we've slept with. That's why as early as middle school the boys bragged about having sex on a regular basis. Of course they hadn't, but that social norm of being a man through sexual achievement was burned into our minds from birth, and so we were willing to even lie about it, if it proved our manhood. Modern sexual and social norms have really made mental prisoners of both men and women.

Part of my work as a writer, philosopher and teacher has been to help free my fellowman of this ridiculousness and exploitation. For starters, I've never tried to "afford" a partner, because if she's only with me for money, she's not really with me. And second, I've had my fair share of sexual partners throughout my life. What matters is the strength of your honor and virtue as a man. I'm certainly not saying that sexual satisfaction isn't important. In fact, I don't think we place enough emphasis on it in relationships and life in general. Humans are sexual beings, and that part of us needs just as much care and reverence as any other. In our 12 years together, my wife and I have never lost our passion for one another, and it's one of the things that makes our relationship powerful and exciting. Sex IS important and sacred. But you can be a great man no matter how much or how little sex you've had.

I am aware that these norms are still abundant in our society, but when I saw the billboard in my City, I was a little more disappointed to see it in the liberal state of Illinois. It is certainly free speech, but I would like to think that the people of our state are more enlightened and dignified.

In the Goodness of the Gods,

Courage and Honor,

Chris Aldridge.