Silencing Ourselves By Censoring Others

[Bob Hubbard]

Silencing Ourselves By Censoring Others

Author: Paul K. McMasters Source: First Amendment Center

Title: SILENCING OURSELVES BY CENSORING OTHERS

Last week a London theater was forced to shut down a play permanently after 400 Sikhs stormed the theater, causing thousands of dollars in damage. The rioters said the play, written by Sikh playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, was disrespectful of their religion.

Most Americans no doubt regard such dispatches from around the globe as quaint and distant. After all, we have the First Amendment, which protects literary and artistic expression from official censorship, while its spirit counsels against unofficial suppression of speech.

Right?

Well, not quite, not always.

Any smugness Americans might feel about their free-speech rights must be tempered by the personal, societal and governmental disagreements that betray free-speech guarantees all too frequently.
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Original Thread: http://www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detail.html?id=11868

 

[raedyn]

This concept I find personally challenging. I can see, logically, how if I allow speech/actions/etc that I don't like to be quashed, it increases the liklihood of my own being quashed. So I try to challenge myself to tolerate things I don't approve of (within reason) to encourage openness and tolerence and non-censorship in a more general way. But it can be difficult. There are things other people say and do that I find repugnant. But it is important to choose one's battles and consider what precidents we set.

 

[kenpo tiger]

This concept I find personally challenging. I can see, logically, how if I allow speech/actions/etc that I don't like to be quashed, it increases the liklihood of my own being quashed. So I try to challenge myself to tolerate things I don't approve of (within reason) to encourage openness and tolerence and non-censorship in a more general way. But it can be difficult. There are things other people say and do that I find repugnant. But it is important to choose one's battles and consider what precidents we set.

I agree with you. However, I think that finding something repugnant and acting (violently) to quash it differs greatly from stating that *one* finds it repugnant and requests cessation of same.

Choose the battle and possibly win the war.

 

[raedyn]

I think that finding something repugnant and acting (violently) to quash it differs greatly from stating that *one* finds it repugnant and requests cessation of same.

Good point. Like I can personally speak out against something I don't like, and say "I am uncomfortable with that" without demanding that society put a stop to it. Is that what you meant?

 

[kenpo tiger]

Good point. Like I can personally speak out against something I don't like, and say "I am uncomfortable with that" without demanding that society put a stop to it. Is that what you meant?

There are many different ways of handling a confrontational situation. In kenpo, we are taught that the best battle won is the one we walk away from.

Our country was founded by people who didn't like what their government was doing and took steps to change it. Sometimes it took violence, like the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; other times, it took composing the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. I think that the reaction should be tailored appropriately to the action.