On fashions, Pfunzl and freedom

[Amy Z]

Tabouli wrote:

> My controversial Chinese colleague Kaiyu had a lot to say about 
the "free" West, not much of it good (not that what he had to say 
about China was any better).  His argument sounded more convincing at 
the time that I can recount here, but I think it was something along 
the lines of the Chinese government controls the people by 
restricting individuals' freedom, the US media controls individuals 
by making them prisoners of their own freedom: they would never 
overthrow the government because they're so busy exercising their own 
individuality and civil rights that they would never unite against 
it.  <

Ursula LeGuin has an essay called "The Stalin in the Soul" about how 
too many US writers surrender their hard-won freedom (a freedom their 
brothers and sisters in the USSR, as it then was, were denied) by 
writing for the market.  We can write what we want here, yet we 
censor ourselves.  Different point, but a compelling essay.  How many 
of us use our freedoms?

Amy