Yeah, I see that term hurled around alot these days...strange thing is, not everyone is granted this freedom to it's fullest extent, atleast not without fear of repercussions.
And yet there are a selected few who may use it at will and suffer no loss to themselves(but bringing great grief to those whom they've used it against).
Freedom of speech...has to be an irony in terms. I mean people in a society could not live in peace if everyone was allowed to say (or do) whatever they wanted. So why bother with such a term when it cannot apply to humanity as a whole? Why not replace it with "Allowance of limited speech"? By golly it would create much less conflict than the whole "Freedom of Speech" deal.
Everyday I see someone exercising their right to "Freedom of speech" in one country and offending individuals living in another country. Sure as heck, isn't the surest path to obtaining World Peace.
I understand the neccesity of not limiting human thought and having the freedom to express an opinion, but some people just do not have the discretion to even own an opinion.
There has to be a limit to what a person should express openly, after all (no matter how much we'd like it to be true for ourselves) the world does NOT revolve around any single individual, and hence it is essential that we possess a reasonable amount of respect for the opinions and beliefs of others.
Ofcourse, that does not always ensure that someone will not be offended by us, but atleast it's a step in the right direction.
2 comments:
Yes! and no...
You are absolutely right that free speach as granted by todays governments (being a Canadian, I will speak from that perspective) is limited, and therefore not free. However, conformity at the price of limiting one's opinions is not an option! Ever read 1984 by George Orwell? If we decide that in order to obtain world peace we need to stop people from expressing their opinions or just part of their opinions just so that they don't offend anyone, then what's the next step? Thought police?
If we say: "No one can speak of abortion because it is a controvertial subject and we might offend someone. (And we wouldn't want to do that because it would throw our precious world peace into jeopardy!)" Then the issue of abortion would never get solved.
And then, on the subject of the next step, Thought police! That's the direction you're taking us! if we start limiting what people can say, then eventually we'll limit what people can think, then we'll start limiting people.
"Where they have burned books, they will burn people."
Prophetic words indeed.
Book burning (idea, and hence free speach burning) ---> People burning (ie. the Holocaust)
No one wants another WWII.
Support Free Speach for a better world.
PS. Sorry about the Hitler comparison, I don't know you and therefore don't know if you're a nazi or not. I'll just assume not, and appologize to you for that, however, my point stands.
I think you've utterly misunderstood what I've written(and I do not say this as an apology to what I've written, I still stand by it). I never said that opinions should be surpressed to obtain world peace(it cannot happen that way). But alot of the time people do not know how to use this privilege of "Freedom of Speech" wisely.
Freedom of speech has an analogy in fire. Our civilisations have been based upon the creative force of fire. Without fire, we might not have progressed as far as we have. And yet at the same time it is incredibly dangerous. At the hand of a person without discretion or without care for the well-being of other people, fire can wield great destruction and cause incredible sorrow.
I think you were brought to fury by the term "Allowance of limited Speech" which I used. I actually used that to explain that the term "Freedom of speech" in our world is a lie in itself. No one, (except for a very selected few) has that privilege to express EVERY opinion that he or she may possess. So the term "Freedom of Speech" should actually be called "Allowance of Limited Speech".
"Thought police"? "Burning of books"? "Holocust"? "Nazi"? You're good at jumping to conclusions I see.^_^
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