A Declaration of Listener Independence

AMERICA IS THE LAND of the speaker, not the listener. The poor overlooked American listener is much downtrodden, and needs a declaration of independency and importance. No wonder we don't listen to each other. Its too expensive. The speaker comes first, but the listener in crucial, though much overlooked in our culture. When you give someone factual information, the information now belongs to the recipients, because you chose to give it to them, and gave it to them. It now belongs to them, like a birthday present. That means that the recipients are not obligated in any way to allow you to control what they do with it. If you ask them to limit their use of it, they can, of course, agree to. People are strange that way. They seem to all have the strange notion that they can give away information, then impose limits on how the recipient uses it. Maybe they think they are "sharing" info, or loaning it, rather than giving it, that it still belongs to them, as well as the right to controls others use of it. Anyone who believes this nonsense is quite mistaken, quite mad, or both. I can't count the number of times someone has told me something, and has later gotten quite mad at me for having shared the information with a third party. Why? No restrictions were ever asked of me, and with regard to another person's wishes, I can't read minds. every time somebody ask me if I can keep a secret, I respond by saying "why should I? You obviously can't." Tell me what you wish at your own risk. Our propensity for trying to control information we have already given away may be cultural, evolutionary, or, like most things, both. If you wish to limit my free speech, tell me up front, and I will tell you whether I am willing to do so in order to gain the vital information you so very much want to share with me, but not give me. I mean, really. How on earth can you tell somebody something, and think that the information still doesn't belong to him or her? Presumed proprietary information is rampant in America, Americans thinking they can dispense facts and control the behavior of those to whom they dispensed. What a presumption of power! How arrogant can you get? Rather, it turns out, in the land of the freely speaking. On this glorious Independence Day, let us celebrate not only freedom of speech, but also freedom of reception and utilization of freely given speech. Down with the tyranny of the arrogant speaker over the listener, go Yankees, and down with tyranny, British or otherwise.