"History has shown that once governments begin to police speech, they find ever more of it to combat. Not only does this trend threaten free speech, freedom of association and a free press, it undermines free exercise of religion." - Jonathon Turley
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Strange Bedfellows
Canadian conservative Ezra Levant is a true hero of the free speech movement. After being subjected to the star chamber of the Canadian human rights bureaucracy he has taken them head on and created a national movement against fascist laws designed to shut down free speech.
Now the Daily Kos has come out in support of Levant, demonstrating once again that free speech is about basic human rights, not which side of the politcal fence you are on.
I wonder, why should we value it? Why shouldn't we take the opportunity to gag Holocaust deniers? Because we may be wrong? Because it damages our own ability to form informed views? Because the power to silence speech is troublesome and best left proscribed?
I started this blog because I was outraged that Toben could be convicted for speaking his mind. I vigorously disagree with Toben's view, but that is not the point. The point is that he should be able to express his view. It is much better that the nutters be allowed to express themselves. If you stop them from doing this you will not change their mind. It best you will drive them underground where they will fester with like-minded people, only this time they will also have a legitimate grievance to add to their conspiracy theories.
It has been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. That is, the answer to bad speech is not censorship, but more speech. It is better to know that some people have very bizarre ideas and to challenge them than to try to shut them up.
These days the tyranny of hurt feelings is the biggest threat to free speech. MY feelings were dreadfully hurt by the prosecution of Toben, but I guess they don't count. However, the feelings of holocaust survivors and their families apparently trump Toben's right to free speech. I don't understand this. Nobody is requiring them to believe Toben or to like him. I feel sorry for people who can't abide the fact that other people have diametrically opposed views, and that they despise them. That is merely human nature.
Islam's prohibitions on blasphemy - denigration of the Prophet, the Koran, on apostasy and even on visual representations of the Prophet are a serious threat to free speech. Salman Rushdie, on e of the greatest authors currently writing lives his life in hiding, under armed protection, as does Ayan Hirsi Ali. She is a true hero, a Somali escapee from a forced marriage, someone who has had her own family inflict genital mutilation on her. She now speaks out against the vile religious beliefs that caused her so much misery, and is forced to live her life with armed guards around her.
We should have a Koran mutilation day every month until this nonsense stops. If a billion people stood shoulder to shoulder with Rushdie and Hirsi Ali and the others intimidated by Islamic nutters maybe they would realise that their aim of shutting people up about the nastier and stupider aspects of Islam is doomed to failure.
Unfortunately you could not stage such an event in Victoria as ridiculing religion is banned there.
I really, really hate being told that I can't think certain thoughts, or express them. Censorship is an attack on basic human dignity. It is a case of someone else telling you that your thoughts are unworthy and you may not express them. Relative freedom in this are is a relatively new thing for humanity. Already it is under threat from politicians, do-gooders and religious tyrants.
Finally, censorship needs censors. The idea of a group of people deciding which thoughts are so bad that they cannot be expressed is frightening. The rule of law would soon be replaced by the rule of an inquisition. Freedom of speech is the lynchpin of the other freedoms. It is useless having free elections if the candidates are not free to express themselves. You can see this in Iran now, where a major tool of the government is to close down communications - mobile phones, SMS, twitter. By shutting people up the incumbent theocracy hopes to keep people under their thumb.
You have a strange affection for free speech.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, why should we value it? Why shouldn't we take the opportunity to gag Holocaust deniers? Because we may be wrong? Because it damages our own ability to form informed views? Because the power to silence speech is troublesome and best left proscribed?
I started this blog because I was outraged that Toben could be convicted for speaking his mind. I vigorously disagree with Toben's view, but that is not the point. The point is that he should be able to express his view. It is much better that the nutters be allowed to express themselves. If you stop them from doing this you will not change their mind. It best you will drive them underground where they will fester with like-minded people, only this time they will also have a legitimate grievance to add to their conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeleteIt has been said that sunlight is the best disinfectant. That is, the answer to bad speech is not censorship, but more speech. It is better to know that some people have very bizarre ideas and to challenge them than to try to shut them up.
These days the tyranny of hurt feelings is the biggest threat to free speech. MY feelings were dreadfully hurt by the prosecution of Toben, but I guess they don't count. However, the feelings of holocaust survivors and their families apparently trump Toben's right to free speech. I don't understand this. Nobody is requiring them to believe Toben or to like him. I feel sorry for people who can't abide the fact that other people have diametrically opposed views, and that they despise them. That is merely human nature.
Islam's prohibitions on blasphemy - denigration of the Prophet, the Koran, on apostasy and even on visual representations of the Prophet are a serious threat to free speech. Salman Rushdie, on e of the greatest authors currently writing lives his life in hiding, under armed protection, as does Ayan Hirsi Ali. She is a true hero, a Somali escapee from a forced marriage, someone who has had her own family inflict genital mutilation on her. She now speaks out against the vile religious beliefs that caused her so much misery, and is forced to live her life with armed guards around her.
We should have a Koran mutilation day every month until this nonsense stops. If a billion people stood shoulder to shoulder with Rushdie and Hirsi Ali and the others intimidated by Islamic nutters maybe they would realise that their aim of shutting people up about the nastier and stupider aspects of Islam is doomed to failure.
Unfortunately you could not stage such an event in Victoria as ridiculing religion is banned there.
I really, really hate being told that I can't think certain thoughts, or express them. Censorship is an attack on basic human dignity. It is a case of someone else telling you that your thoughts are unworthy and you may not express them. Relative freedom in this are is a relatively new thing for humanity. Already it is under threat from politicians, do-gooders and religious tyrants.
Finally, censorship needs censors. The idea of a group of people deciding which thoughts are so bad that they cannot be expressed is frightening. The rule of law would soon be replaced by the rule of an inquisition. Freedom of speech is the lynchpin of the other freedoms. It is useless having free elections if the candidates are not free to express themselves. You can see this in Iran now, where a major tool of the government is to close down communications - mobile phones, SMS, twitter. By shutting people up the incumbent theocracy hopes to keep people under their thumb.
I agree, particularly with the disinfectant remark; I was just curious.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Rushdie is a fine writer: Midnight's Children is brilliant. I mean to read East, West and The Satanic Verses at some point.