Photo by Colin Smith. Speaker at Hyde Park Corner. February 1998
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speaker%27s_Corner_-_geograph.org.uk_-_240724.jpg
Is Free Speech Dead?
We are seeing much more censorship as Big Tech protects and pushes its desired viewpoints and algorithmically and with “false news” detectors deletes, lambastes and/or bans contrary viewpoints.
In South Africa legislation was introduced to discourage and threaten any who might speak out against how they handle the covid-19 ‘disaster situation’, and controversial hate speech legislation is being promulgated. Peaceful protests are curtailed and carefully watched by the police.
And there is a rising tendency for people with a differing viewpoint to hastily and aggressively label others as conspiracy theorists, climate change deniers, pro-vaxers, leftists, right-wingers, Nazi sympathisers, activists and a host of derogatory and demeaning verbiage.
In the process intelligent exchanges of differing viewpoints in debate, conversation or news articles are being curtailed.
Free speech is under threat and may be dying.
And not because as one wag says, “Without freedom of speech we wouldn’t know who the idiots are!”
I was delighted to spend time at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London when living in London some years ago. For me it was an experience of democracy, tolerance, learning (and also fun, banter and heckling and pantomime) in community.
Vincent McNabb used to walk miles to speak there and drew big crowds. He was a gentle activist who fought for opposition to what has now come to be the norm in our hurting societies, economies and environment. Unrestrained and irresponsible big business, unbridled use of technology, a rich and self-appointed “elite” and a decline of worthwhile values.
Why counter this slow death of free speech?
We need to defend what remains of participative democracy and against a clear trend towards totalitarian dictatorship in nations and in organisations they work with like the World Economic Forum, The World Health Organisation and the United Nations. Formed for laudable, worthy reasons, they have plunged into a sorry state.
We need to do this by talking! By speaking out and not shutting up. This might or might not mean avoiding the usual protest and legal routes (both increasingly powerless or under the control of the power-holders) as far as is possible. By overcoming our listlessness, our fears, and tendency to sit on the fence.
We need to keep talking out against the fast emerging new world order characterised by a dictatorship style adopted by the self-appointed "elite" (although it might be too late). So we need to become aware of what has or is being done - much earlier. Artificial Intelligence is only one of the tools to be aware of. (Bio intelligence is also referred to - linked to digitization and vaccinations, or is this really too far a mental leap to make?) Elon Musk has more knowledge and insight and credibility than I have, and says:
Only we can be the antidote to false news, misinformation, menticide, narcissistic conversationalists.
How to retaliate?
We need to do it in love, as gently as we are able- because love is what counters anger, fear. Our true nature, as all wisdom traditions teach us, is love, after all.
So often actions speak louder than words. A favourite story for me is that of Woodbine Willy’s life. He both spoke out and behaved what he espoused:
Studdert Kennedy was an army chaplain who bucked the incompetent bureaucracy that resulted in so many unnecessary First World War casualties. He refused to give safe, cosy, sermons behind the lines, and chose instead to spend his time with the common soldiers in horrific conditions in the trenches, not preaching, but just being with them, coming alongside them in their need. He’d often hand out a Woodbine cigarette and became known as Woodbine Willy. Years later when he died, his simple funeral was attended by hundreds of thousands of people. A single packet of Woodbines was placed on top of the coffin.
Mark Nepos adds his wisdom:
Campaigning for freedom of speech as an individual right, fighting against the constraints and obstacles being applied, and speaking out against what is happening to humanity, is an imperative even though there are consequences to those who do this.
However, whatever the cost, the benefits of both listening and speaking out in love – at the individual, group, community, organisation and societal levels – are greater.
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was executed for his beliefs and opposition to Hitler’s regime, warns:
“Not to speak is to speak”.
A FEW QUOTES TO REFLECT ON:
“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly” - Mahatma Gandhi
“We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists” - Bill Maher, contemporary comedian and political commentator
“There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right” - Winston Churchill
“Freedom is not a passive state, it’s an active state; freedom is not a privilege, it’s an obligation; freedom is not an end but a means to an end. Freedom is not just something we demand only of the government, but also something we must actively create within and around ourselves. Freedom is not an ornament, but a set of tools to go about building a fairer, safer and sustainable society” - Mark Heywood (Daily Maverick Editorial 26th April, 2022: South Africa, use freedom now or lose freedom tomorrow)
“We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels and free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep and conformists” - Bill Maher, contemporary comedian and political commentator
“There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right” - Winston Churchill
“Freedom is not a passive state, it’s an active state; freedom is not a privilege, it’s an obligation; freedom is not an end but a means to an end. Freedom is not just something we demand only of the government, but also something we must actively create within and around ourselves. Freedom is not an ornament, but a set of tools to go about building a fairer, safer and sustainable society” - Mark Heywood (Daily Maverick Editorial 26th April, 2022: South Africa, use freedom now or lose freedom tomorrow)
“The brutality of war is literally unutterable. There are no words foul and filthy enough to describe it” - Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (Woodbine Willy)
