EDITORIAL
By J
At the very heart of freedom of speech lies the right to offend. Without the right to offend, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are merely gentile-sounding phrases with no practical value. After all, the most popular idea needs no protection. For centuries in free societies thinkers and artists were concerned with government repression of speech. Now we face the specter of jihadists who murder those who offend their ideas concerning religion. The attack at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, France is one of the latest and most horrifying incidents in recent memory. Here the Islamist terrorists singled out several artists whose work contradicted Islamist ideas and brutally murdered them.
In response to this brutal attack, many western politicians and journalists have argued that
we should take care to not offend the religious sentiments of Muslims. While in the short run that may be good practical advice, in the long run freedom does not exist merely for the purpose of making everyone happy. When one person exercises his right to speak, his ideas may cause agitation for another. If he worries too much about how others think and feel, he is allowing the most rage-filled of the human race to determine the parameters of acceptable speech.
We believe that reason and compassion should be our guides in matters of speech, not the
rage and malice of the most backwards and malevolent. Even when speech is not guided by
reason or compassion, that speech is still protected. We must never allow totalitarians to use violence to narrow the parameters of what may be stated or printed in a free society. So while all thinking people disagree with some expression and all find some offensive, more significantly, we stipulate to one central idea. That is, that people in a free society have the right to express their views without facing violence from those who find their ideas disagreeable.
This right to express ideas is absolute, and without regard to whom an idea offends. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Confucians, Hindus, Muslims, Agnostics, and persons of every creed on earth must at times suffer the expression of an idea or argument that is diametrically opposed to their world view. Occasionally, the idea may rise to the level of moral offense. When that offense occurs, the offended party has a number of choices. He may publish an essay, write a letter to the editor, demonstrate in public, or simply ignore the objectionable statement. However, there is one response that must never be tolerated in a free society: violence against the offending speaker.
Until recently, one of the seminal values that made the United States of America such a
great nation was the value its people placed on freedom of speech. Sadly, our society has moved in a different direction in the last two decades. While the government may not do much to silence dissent, the people of this nation are far more comfortable with the silencing of dissent than with freedom of speech. Speech codes on campuses, the ostracizing of dissenting views, and gentle government warnings by elected officials to not offend members of a certain religion have become the hallmarks of a politically correct society.