Dolf's Blog
Integral thoughts about development, humanity, spirituality
Freedom of Speech is Overrated
In many constitutions, Freedom of Speech is listed as one of the
first paragraphs. It protects our right to express ourselves,
without the fear of retribution by the government, groups or
individuals. In many countries, freedom of speech is
non-existent, which is one of the most effective ways to
suppress a people. It is also for that reason one of the most
cherished constitutional rights for journalists and other media.
So why do I call freedom of speech overrated?
In the past years, in The Netherlands there have been many debates about the subject and how far it extends. This was mainly a subject in the ubiquitous Islam-debate, Ayaan Hirsi-Ali's self-proclaimed "right to offend", the killing of a filmmaker who made it his job to offend people, Danish cartoons and most recently, the (yet unreleased) movie of a Dutch member of parliament in which he is going to claim that the Koran is a fascist book. In the latter case, protests have arisen all over the world already, without anyone having seen the actual movie yet.
My point about freedom of speech is about Ecology. You can check out a previous blog entry (here) for my definition of it. In short, Ecology means that your actions should not hurt yourself, the other or the environment in a physical, emotional, rational or spiritual sense. In my opinion, freedom of speech needs to be measured by ecology. It is not a right we have that is infinite and all-transcending, but just one of our freedoms that is constrained by the freedom of others. Freedom of speech is an important right that, however, ends where ecology gets violated. Once that happens, it is time to rethink our acts and find an other way to set up a constructive way of communicating our opinions.
One note on current affairs, though: in the above examples, Freedom of Speech has been attempted to be blocked by extremist groups that felt offended and decided to take unecological actions against random representations of the groups they thought was doing wrong. In those cases, it is not ecology that restrains freedom of speech, but the lack of ecology. However, the creators and publishers of the Danish cartoons and the creator of the Dutch anti-Islam movie should have done their ecology-check before releasing their materials. Based on that, it may have been found wiser to find an other way to voice their opinions.
So why do I call freedom of speech overrated?
In the past years, in The Netherlands there have been many debates about the subject and how far it extends. This was mainly a subject in the ubiquitous Islam-debate, Ayaan Hirsi-Ali's self-proclaimed "right to offend", the killing of a filmmaker who made it his job to offend people, Danish cartoons and most recently, the (yet unreleased) movie of a Dutch member of parliament in which he is going to claim that the Koran is a fascist book. In the latter case, protests have arisen all over the world already, without anyone having seen the actual movie yet.
My point about freedom of speech is about Ecology. You can check out a previous blog entry (here) for my definition of it. In short, Ecology means that your actions should not hurt yourself, the other or the environment in a physical, emotional, rational or spiritual sense. In my opinion, freedom of speech needs to be measured by ecology. It is not a right we have that is infinite and all-transcending, but just one of our freedoms that is constrained by the freedom of others. Freedom of speech is an important right that, however, ends where ecology gets violated. Once that happens, it is time to rethink our acts and find an other way to set up a constructive way of communicating our opinions.
One note on current affairs, though: in the above examples, Freedom of Speech has been attempted to be blocked by extremist groups that felt offended and decided to take unecological actions against random representations of the groups they thought was doing wrong. In those cases, it is not ecology that restrains freedom of speech, but the lack of ecology. However, the creators and publishers of the Danish cartoons and the creator of the Dutch anti-Islam movie should have done their ecology-check before releasing their materials. Based on that, it may have been found wiser to find an other way to voice their opinions.
