Ever hear of outside funding, outside influence, so forth?
It can happen when somebody across the street drops by to share ideas with you. It’s pretty horrible, because somebody who was external to your location comes over and maybe has an impact on you. Which should be illegal.
Do I sound sardonic?
I have my reasons: Two other citizen activists and I are being victimized by this sort of anti-outsider attitude. In our case, as practiced by the political establishment of Oklahoma. Trying to jail us for failing to predict how they would re-interpret their own rules prohibiting so-called “non-resident†petition circulators. For the sordid details, visit freepauljacob.com .
But a recent story from Russia shows how tyrannical the anti-outsider prejudice becomes when taken to its logical (or illogical) conclusion.
President Vladimir Putin’s hand-picked successor, a previously unknown functionary, just won a meaningless political election in Russia. And now Putin is complaining about foreign funding of Russian political activists — whose activities are regularly censored and impeded by Putin’s own government, most conspicuously so during the recent non-election.
The plight of would-be practitioners of Russian democracy underscores the dangers of bans on “outside†influence. For influence, read “support for democratic rights†and “dialogue.â€
Let’s hope Putin’s not taking his cue from Oklahoma. Or vice versa.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.