An argument for free speech by Russell Robins Free speech is a quaint old concept, many people these days think. Ask someone on the street the question “throughout history, could you always say what you felt like saying without repercussion?” and you’ll probably get a “yeah, I guess so” answer. In actuality nothing could be further from the truth. In actuality there were no laws restricting government or churches role in limiting your ability to express your beliefs until the founding of the United States of America. When we think of free speech we think of a person simply getting up on a box and making his public pronouncements. This is the very superficial face of freedom of expression. The hidden side and perhaps vastly more important is the acceptance of all those around him to allow him to get up on that box and make his pronouncements. Previous to the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, there was the ability to get up on your box and speak but there was also the ability for the government to haul you off for speaking out against the king or for the church to haul you off for speaking out against the teachings of the pope and these are the benign historical references. There is always Nazism, fascism, totalitarianism and so on which put so many millions into early graves. What about today? Right now? The adherence to political correctness and the Islamic terrorists have brought the concept of freedom of speech to the forefront. Some say that freedom of speech must be curtailed or managed by government or self-censorship in order to protect the minority, the oppressed or to keep the peace. Some say that certain types of speech are hurtful. I say those ideas are rubbish. There is nothing better for any society than true freedom of expression and I will prove why this is so. The curtailing of free speech or the instituting of speech codes is quite simply a brutish method of ensuring your ideas and desires over someone else’s. Whether done as a government over a class of people or one class of people over another class of people the concept and effect is the same. This effect that I refer to is ultimately the limiting of thought, a barrier for the mind to not pass through, a not so subtle reminder that you are wrong! This is what we see in the terrorist’s inability to accept the slightest deviation from their draconian beliefs. This is what we are seeing with the lesbian gay transwhatever movements. This is what we are seeing with the simply enunciation of the word nigger. All of the aforementioned groups desire to force a certain behavior on the individual to ensure the success of what it is that group believes is important to them. This is the height of immaturity of the mind. It is a bullying attempt to stifle criticism in order to justify and preserve lifestyles and behaviors. With a true acceptance of free speech, every speaker and every listener must be open and mature. I make a corollary that the less free the speech the less mature the society and the more free the speech, the more maturity the society. When a person hears a viewpoint contrary to what they hold as true two things can occur. One is that the person is angered which leads to the aforementioned speech codes. The second is that the hearer has his beliefs tested. This causes a person to think and judge himself, the other speaker, and what it is both hold true. This second scenario is an exchange of ideas. It is an internal and external debate. It is an addition of possibilities and of producing a larger theoretical horizon. Scientific breakthroughs occur because one scientist is open to comparing his work to another’s. The great works of literature are due to the author being able to internalize the struggles of someone else. Inventions that have changed life completely were brought about by inventor s desire to improve life…for others. This internal debate can have many different outcomes from saying this person is an idiot (his ideas have already been tested and have proven to be false or unworkable) or the listener’s ideas are complimented, his blanks are filled in, or his figurative dead end is granted a new stretch of road to travel. The interaction could have one of these outcomes or any combination of these in between. It is this openness to ideas that propels us as a society and as individuals forward. It is this sharing of ideas that was the classical liberal education. It is this that causes a person to fully realize who they are as a person by being able to compare who they have been in relation to new found ideas. To a person questioning, the ideas offered due to free speech are his answers. Figuratively, if thoughts are blocks or pieces to a puzzle then the more pieces the greater likelihood the structure or puzzle is completed. So who are you? Did you read this and think that I should be snuffed out because I used a word you don’t like, or did you read this and think “I never thought of that before”?
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 14:39:19 +0000
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