Free Speech and its Importance

 

 

The primary purpose of any country is to protect the freedom of the people to develop their full potential. To deny the development of such a nation of the freedom to develop is to deprive it of the goal of civilization. The true fundamental right is that of free speech, but it also has consequences if used improperly or immorally. You can’t yell fire in a crowded place, unless it is on fire. If you do and people are hurt or killed, you are responsible for their injuries and death.

 Hate speech is a tricky subject, because people that spout it say it is protected under free speech, but yet it is there to cause violence and harm to people.

The world has gone through a profound transformation over the past 70 years. The freedom that was in place centuries ago has been undermined in many areas. There has been a very vigorous effort to impose a view about what each person can think.

There is a constant pressure to change our views or to make sure that we don't disagree with those who hold power and to make them out to be a supreme being.

Free speech is important because it is the very basis of any democracy. It allows individuals to express their views, to be critical of those who govern us and to try to bring about better and different policies that help all, not just certain people.

As Joseph Stiglitz says, "The truth has to get out there and the media has to continue to speak out, and the importance of this is greater today than ever before. I think it is at the heart of democracy, the ability of a population to determine its own path."

This is true of the US and other developed countries. We are living in a time when everyone is trying to block people from saying what they think. Hate Speech is not part of Free Speech, because it is constructed to cause violence and harm to certain people, Cyberbullying is considered hate speech and needs to be regulated. Your action of speech do have consequences some may be good and other may be harmful. Growing up I was always taught to think before you speak, and if you didn’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. We have lost that lesson and this last election proves that with people calling them selves Christian but acting unchristianly especially when it was serving their own purpose. 

The underlying cause of this trend is not a problem with democratic debate, it's a problem with power. The real battle in democracies is not between those who try to overcome this distortion and those who keep it in place, it's about which party has more of it.

A free society, as Professor Stiglitz says, is a market economy, but the other part is free speech, as he says, "with the right to make yourself heard." 

Ultimately, free speech is about making sure that people have the ability to express their views and keep others safe at the same time. This should have little bearing on how much money is earned or any other question.