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| John Stuart Mill. |
Many long dead thinkers and philosophers, along with those
who still expound their views, would be amused.
Freedom of speech is the essence of community, but it seems
to have fallen foul of gentility, toleration, correctness and a misplaced sense
of reasonableness and decency leaving us with a modern world loaded with
half-truths and a strange distortion of reality.
The question is whether or not the community really wants
free speech or beyond that, understands what the true unvarnished exercise of
opinion actually means.
Contemporary society appears to be yet intellectually
immature and so not ready, or consequently, to hear opinions with which many,
or a minority, may vehemently disagree.
Disagreement is not the difficulty, rather it is how people
react and respond to an opinion that offends personal morals or jars with
deeply held beliefs.
Examples abound of people who are unhappy with another’s
views or behaviour and their response to that, either intellectually or
physically, is equal, or worse, than that of the people they damn.
Writing in “The Defence of Freedom of Speech: from Ancient
Greece to Andrew Bolt” author Chris Berg said: “Freedom a speech has been, and
still is, one of our most vital liberties. If we discard it, we critically
undermine the moral foundations of liberal democracy, and lose our basic human
individuality”.
Eighteenth century Swiss-born French politician, Benjamin
Constant, who often spoke about freedom of speech, argued that a society able
to share opinions freely was a stable one.
The idea that we should engage with life, embed ourselves in
our communities and voice our views was common in the writing of British
philosopher, John Stuart Mill.
As an advocate of free speech, he said: “He who lets the
world, or his own portion of it, choose his plan of life for him has no need of
any other faculty than the ape-like one of imitation. He who chooses his plan
for himself employs all his faculties.”
Berg has pointed out that free expression helps society
obtain truths, but, he argues, society may not want to prioritise truth
discovery.
Personal experience reinforces Berg’s view for the truth
does not always bring personal comfort as reality is frequently contrary to the
ease, imagined or otherwise, that many seek.
Alcohol has a damning impact on society and yet it is so
ingrained in lifestyles that most, from the decision makers down, overlook and
seemingly ignore its societal implications.
Similarly, and with even more unfavourable implications for
humanity, is the damage we have done to the atmosphere; an injury that
threatens all species and yet it is a truth we don’t seem to want.
