After headlines about the Sony hack and the threat of violence to people seeing the movie The Interview, Sony has canceled the release of the movie on December 25.
Now the U.S. is considering retaliation:
Typical retaliatory tools, such as imposing economic sanctions or restricting trade and financial dealings, would have no effect on the isolated nation, which the United Nations has sanctioned for its nuclear weapons program.
“We can’t just cut them off economically, because what are we going to cut off?” Syversen said. “This is a very tough problem to solve.”
Three main thoughts come to mind:
1. The North Korean Boy Emperor must have a pretty thin skin if a comic movie on the other side of the world bothers him that much. Leaders that must prop themselves up by silencing opponents and censoring information in and outside of their countries come across as pretty weak and sorry.
2. The movie The Interview looked pretty crappy to me in the trailers. There was no way that I would have spent any money or time going to see that. But now, no matter how bad a movie, I will certainly go and see it when it will finally get released. Everyone in the world will.
3. For retaliatory measures, SHOW THE MOVIE. What are they going to do? Send little Korean soldiers with big hats into every movie theater in the world and shoot the viewers?
We must not give in to censorship. The Taliban is shooting little girls in Afghanistan because they want to go to school. The North Koreans lock up their own people for generations for the “crime” of not agreeing to support a fat baby-face as divine ruler. The East Germans were shooting their own people when they tried to cross the borders into the West as late as 1989 and arrested them when they caught them listing to Western radio stations. The list goes on.
The free world must remain free to say and do as the individuals please, and keep doing so, in order for the oppressors to look more and more silly with their games.
Sony – show us the movie! It’s bound to be a best-seller.