Up & Coming Weekly

May 9, 2023

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1498863

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 8 of 24

8 UCW MAY 10 - 16, 2023 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Currently the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, together with the democracy to which it is foundational, has increasingly become an endangered species. It is under attack by calls for censorship coming from both the Left and the Right. From the Left it takes the forms of political correctness that has a stranglehold on many of our colleges and universities with its proscribing certain words and of the pernicious movements of so-called "wokeism" and cancel culture. An example of politically correct ideology run amok was Stanford University's banning the use of the term "American," though, after the predictable outrage, they backed down saying that they had intended merely to discourage the use of the word. An egregious example of cancel culture was the removal of a statue of omas Jefferson from New York City Hall's Council Cham- ber because a council member felt "uncomfortable" with it. From the Right it takes the forms of banning books from libraries, for- bidding the teaching of certain top- ics like gender, critical race theory, and racism. A frightening statistic from a recent survey is that 62% of college students said it is "at least sometimes acceptable" to shout down a speaker, and one in five students said that using violence to stop a campus speech is "sometimes acceptable." What motivates all these calls for censorship is that the speech ob- jected to may give offense to some. us, some Muslims at Hamline University took offense at an alleged image of Mohammed that a profes- sor showed in his class which they thought blasphemous even though no one knows what Mohammed looked like. Had the image borne an inscription that did not identify it as Mohammed there would have been no problem. at professor was summarily fired. Books have been removed from school and public libraries because only a single parent has deemed them offensive — a tyranny of one! ere is no end to this madness. ese are echoes of 1984. e 11th Commandment of these self-ap- pointed zealots and scolds is, "ou shalt not offend!" But why shouldn't we? We have an unwritten right to offend by our speech if we wish, though we may be impolite or im- prudent in doing so, but we have no God-given right not to be offended. Indeed, we are sometimes justified in giving offense. us, Socrates rightly gave offense to the Athenian leaders as Jesus did to the religious authorities. Nevertheless, our exercise of free speech is in some cases justifiably restricted and sanctioned by law. ese are cases when the speech actually or potentially harms others. ese restrictions are justified by what the nineteenth-century Eng- lish philosopher, John Stuart Mill, calls the "harm principle." It was anticipated by omas Jefferson in his comment advocating the right of freedom of conscience: "e legiti- mate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." It was later articulated more fully by Mill in his classic defense of free speech, On Liberty: "the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individual- ly or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. at the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others." e limits that Mill places on our actions are determined by our du- ties to society among which are "not injuring the interests of one anoth- er; or rather certain interests which, either by express legal provision or by tacit understanding, ought to be considered as rights." Note that Mill distinguishes be- tween generic interests and those that "ought to be considered as rights." Individuals have an inter- est in material things like food and shelter necessary for their self- preservation, and no less an interest in immaterial things like peace of mind for their psychological well- being. Furthermore, the public has an interest in ensuring its safety, and the state has an interest in main- taining its security — these interests may or may not conflict with those of the individual. ese are generic interests. But individuals also have interests in their opportunity to speak freely, to assemble peacefully, and to exercise their conscience by worshiping, or not, as they choose. ese interests are rights. What Mill says about actions in general applies particularly to speech insofar as speech is a form of action. Speech ought not to injure either the generic interests of others or their rights. Speech injurious to the generic interests of others includes blackmail, perjury, libel, or false alarms like yelling "Fire" in a crowded cinema when there is no fire. Examples of speech injurious to the rights of others include the press's publishing information that would compromise the defendant's right to a fair trial, or someone's making public another's medical history in violation of their right to privacy. Unquestionably, these kinds of speech do not qualify for protection under the First Amend- ment and are outlawed — no one has either a moral or legal right to such speech. Should, then, offensive speech also be restricted? I think not. My reason is that offensive speech, unlike libel and incitements to riot, are not injurious to either others' generic interests or their rights and so do not violate the harm principle. Offensive speech does not cause material harm to anyone: it neither injures nor kills them, deprives them of their wealth, nor damages their reputation. It merely offends one's sensibilities; taking offense is a form of indignation. As the saying goes, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I cannot imagine that the Muslim students offended by the depic- tion of Mohammed or the council member discomforted by Jefferson's stature were so psychologically dev- astated that they consigned them- selves to psychiatric care. People have been fired from their jobs for offensive speech such as making racist or homophobic remarks. But the only justifiable grounds for firing them is their inability or unwillingness to do their job. However, such people should be censured if not censored. Mill dis- tinguishes between legal and social penalties. Legal penalties, for ex- ample, would be those imposed by the courts on libelous speech. Social penalties, on the other hand, would be those imposed by the court of public opinion and would in some cases be appropriately imposed on offensive speech. Mill again: "e acts of an indi- vidual may be hurtful to others, or wanting in due consideration for their welfare, without going to the length of violating any of their con- stitutional rights. e offender may then be justly punished by opinion, though not by law." us, the appropriate penalties for personnel making offensive remarks in the workplace would be their being shunned or remonstrat- ed against by their colleagues. In conclusion: We ought to enjoy to the maximum the right of free- dom of speech, foundational to democracy, unless it materially harms others. The moral and legal permissibility of offensive speech by RICHARD HALL OPINION RICHARD HALL, Contributor. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. As Americans, we have an unwritten right to offend by our speech, though we may be impolite or imprudent in doing so. Speech should not be restricted unless it causes material harm.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Up & Coming Weekly - May 9, 2023