Education
Their conscious may be free within them but how it is exercised is subject to this control and subjecting oneself to this control is to enjoy the freedom responsibly . The freedom of speech and weight of responsibility enables the reciprocal relations between individuals and society : the individual is allowed to be him or herself only to the extent that this liberty does not interfere with another who has chosen to enjoys theirs differently .
By the education system nurturing these value systems and the educated internalizing them , the contours of acceptable speech get institutionalized . Indeed , it is the function of the education system to create a baseline of knowledge for acceptable speech or any other freedoms for that matter . Indeed , anyone who has passed through such a system ( graduation ) is expected to be in command of that baseline , an instrument for manoeuvring the terrain of free speech with ease .
Significantly , command of baseline knowledge is the license to speak freely without need for anyone to superintend what anyone is saying or the need to monitor what he or she is saying . As long as people conform to this bargain the role of speech controller or monitor is rendered unnecessary .
Free speech and Africa
An education system that is not creating baseline knowledge is not worth its salt . In the area of speech , it invites a dictator the role of speech monitor or superintendent . By definition , monitored speech is not free speech . This structural impediment to the emergence of free speech in Africa has led to casual conclusions that dictators are muzzling free speech . However , even the most sophisticated dictator can only get to the surface of speech because the conscience remains out of reach .
Europeans ( and Americans ) are not any more enlightened than Africans when it comes to freedom of speech and conscience . It is that while they have put in place a system of education that has nurtured self-governance around speech , they destroyed these very systems for African systems precisely because speech was counter to the interests of colonization . Moreover , the neo-colonial context of African independence means that the impetus to decolonize education so that freedoms including speech may emerge remains elusive . This is the necessary prerequisite in the search for the African conscience .
Self-censorship
Since the 1950s as America began to integrate its black population into its education system , it increasingly managed to navigate its deep racial divide by ensuring that blacks subscribe to a set of common values – in reality integrating them into the dominant white culture and imposing a “ consensus ” upon them . However , the objective was that with a consensus in hand they , blacks and whites , could debate how to continue searching for ways to overcome , if not conceal , that divide . As Golooba noted above , America considers itself “ the land of the free ” without necessarily having to craft a boundless society that creates anarchy .
A society that has reached baseline consensus understands that it can take certain prepositions for granted . A knowledgeable person distinguishes himself by making a contribution above , not below , the baseline , which makes the opinion “ informed ” and therefore worthy of respect – “ respect my opinion ,” are oft-repeated words that carry a silent “ informed ” between “ my ” and “ opinion ” which is implicit and never uttered simply out of humility .
Without the baseline , nothing can be taken for granted . Every discourse begins , and often ends , with disagreement on the basics , incapable of elevating into an informed opinion .
If an opinion is not informed it is a rant , uncoordinated utterances of words whose value cannot be ascertained , which is akin to the gibberish of an infant – an infant needs monitoring .
A regurgitation of basics ensues , rendering the task of ascertaining the value of an opinion impossible . In such circumstances , respect is conferred to the person who has managed to assemble the most diplomas , as proof of intelligence .
A meeting that should last an hour last a whole day because there ’ s nothing to take for granted ; the absence of basics means it must begin by establishing them . Significantly , petty grievances
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