Free Speech 101

As a semi-professional skeptic (which is a nice way of saying that I can't seem to find anyone who wants to pay me lavishly for writing about skepticism), I often get frustrated in dealing with others who disagree with my views. There are many reasons for this frustration, none of which I shall go into here, but sometimes I am tempted to wish I could pry open some people's skulls and tinker with their heads a bit to set them straight. Silly notion, I know, but it is a tempting one.

In "Fahrenheit 451," Ray Bradbury writes of a world wherein the government has found a way to do exactly that. Here is an America whose government has grown weary of trying to cater to every petulant differing opinion. Someone, we're told, decided that the masses argue endlessly because they read each other's ill-formed opinions. But if those opinions -- and all written material -- were removed from the culture, then everyone would have to get along and play nice. In place of the written words that are outlawed, the government institutes entertainment policies, whereby the ultimate lowest common denominator concept rules the day. You think soap operas are devoid of intellect? You ain't seen nuthin yet.

This book is vitally important today as it was almost 40 years ago when it was written. Today, many groups seek to legislate away other groups whose opinions are deemed by the first group to be "offensive." As there is the weight of legislatures behind this notion, this isn't a theoretical danger. If the NAACP can silence the KKK, they can silence you. If the JDL can silence Holocaust deniers, they can do it to me. If Democrats can regulate tobacco, they can regulate fatty foods, salt, seatbelts (whoops, they already got that one), and so forth. If I can shut you up, how long before someone comes along to put duct tape over my mouth?

The moral of this story is "be careful what you wish for, you may get it but regret the having of it." It ought to be required reading by every high school student in the country.