FreedomBox

Freedom requires Free Critical Thinking which allows thought to transcend the templates of thinking which are outdated, and possibly injurious to well-being.

This statement is proven by simple reflection on the modern uses of propaganda in all parts of our lives: political, commercial, social. Cable TV allows a 24 hour intrusion into our homes with their repetitious, self-seeking pandering powered by commercials.
I use my family as a case in point: for the last three months, whenever I visited my parents, my father would make statements about the price of gas and somehow link the increase in prices to President Obama.
Now that the price of gasoline has been tending downwards, he no longer mentions gasoline.
My father parrots data which has been drilled into him, a process most of us employ, and when gas prices tend downwards, his 24 hour source of news does not mention the fact, hence, there is no longer any reason to mention energy policy.
(This type of political propaganda is one of many zero-sum game templates of thinking which are an epidemic in our culture.)

Free Critical Thinking requires Integrity of Memory.

We have little contact with reality that is free of training, learning, or patterns held in memory. The very notion of "common sense" points to a belief in good training and the retention - or memory - of such wisdom.

Every concept we cast and hold in memory is open to being shaped by every subsequent event in our lives. When we invoke a memory, we do not reach into the storehouse of memory and grab a well-defined object; we "re-create" the memory every time we use it. This is why memory changes. Every law enforcement agency knows that the memory of eyewitnesses changes over time.
Therefore, as far as our sense of Reality depends upon Memory, Reality is controlled by those who control Memory.(Remember the novel 1984.)

There are Facebook data mines and now there are Cloud data mines, all controlled by commercial entities.
Entities like Facebook are quite clear on how they manipulate personal data for profit.
Entities with Cloud data so far probably do not. If they were to do so, it would be hidden from their customers.
All such entities would fold and give in if ordered by Government to disclose data:  many have already done so in various situations.

Therefore, to address the second requirement of a secure and independent Memory:

FreedomBox 

• Email and telecommunications that protects privacy and resists eavesdropping
• A publishing platform that resists oppression and censorship.
• An organizing tool for democratic activists in hostile regimes.
• An emergency communication network in times of crisis.

FreedomBox will put in people's own hands and under their own control encrypted voice and text communication, anonymous publishing, social networking, media sharing, and (micro)blogging.
 http://freedomboxfoundation.org/learn/
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