2.12.2006
The right against governments to freedom of expression
What is it about the fundamental right to free expression that troubles the world so? There are seldom reasons to qualify the right, except in cases of its criminal abuse (yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre when there is no blaze) or very narrow cases of expediency in a time of war (I leave the reader to imagine these examples). Otherwise, I see little to no reason to qualify the right. J.S. Mill thought of it as the most important of freedoms in a liberal democracy, and its supporters of all political stripes have shielded it quite strongly throughout American history (much moreso than European governments, I must say). The right is a near-absolute, despotic and negative claim against government: here thou shalt not pass, here thou shalt not regulate.
But the broad Muslim world has, for the most part, rejected this freedom for its people, preferring instead an autocratic, government-run monopoly on speech and debate. This is the same system that Western Europe went to great pains to extinguish over the centuries running from the English Bill of Rights to the powerful protection of free expression by even the most conservative American Supreme Court Justices (witness Justice Scalia's defense of flag-burning as protected political "speech" in a famous case). On analysis, this country above all others has protected this right fiercely, and that is something to be very proud of...
...which is all the more reason that the Bush Administration's response to the Danish cartoon scandal is so lame. They are appeasing the radical Islamists whose agenda is to link in Western minds their ressentiment and political rhetoric with something that ought to be championed. The Islamists have a very real and articulated goal of convincing the nation with the strongest tradition of speech protection to make an exception for their intolerant anti-liberal views. And they have largely succeeded.
Volokh Conspiracy has a photo of a woman, purportedly from Kenya, protesting the protection of freedom of expression as "Western terrorism." I'm sad to say that this blatantly Orwellian phenomena is eerily similar to the postmodern attempt to redefine all actions as ideological. "Freedom of speech" becomes, in this Continental philosophical analysis, merely clever words for Western imperialism. And so Orwell is spun onto his head... he lies upside down, gasping for air, aghast at what the intellectual class has done. "Tolerance" has now become absolute, and we are asked to tolerate the intolerant. But of course this absolute brand of tolerance is one no liberal democrat would ever fight for -- not one committed to principle, at least.
But the broad Muslim world has, for the most part, rejected this freedom for its people, preferring instead an autocratic, government-run monopoly on speech and debate. This is the same system that Western Europe went to great pains to extinguish over the centuries running from the English Bill of Rights to the powerful protection of free expression by even the most conservative American Supreme Court Justices (witness Justice Scalia's defense of flag-burning as protected political "speech" in a famous case). On analysis, this country above all others has protected this right fiercely, and that is something to be very proud of...
...which is all the more reason that the Bush Administration's response to the Danish cartoon scandal is so lame. They are appeasing the radical Islamists whose agenda is to link in Western minds their ressentiment and political rhetoric with something that ought to be championed. The Islamists have a very real and articulated goal of convincing the nation with the strongest tradition of speech protection to make an exception for their intolerant anti-liberal views. And they have largely succeeded.
Volokh Conspiracy has a photo of a woman, purportedly from Kenya, protesting the protection of freedom of expression as "Western terrorism." I'm sad to say that this blatantly Orwellian phenomena is eerily similar to the postmodern attempt to redefine all actions as ideological. "Freedom of speech" becomes, in this Continental philosophical analysis, merely clever words for Western imperialism. And so Orwell is spun onto his head... he lies upside down, gasping for air, aghast at what the intellectual class has done. "Tolerance" has now become absolute, and we are asked to tolerate the intolerant. But of course this absolute brand of tolerance is one no liberal democrat would ever fight for -- not one committed to principle, at least.
# posted by Vanity @ 23:53 
