>>> "Dace" <edace at flinthills.com> 03/24/00 12:37PM >>>
That's not it, Charles. The reason we protect freedom of speech is not for
the good of society but out of respect for the individual.
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CB: When you say "we protect..," the "we" is society, not an individual. The First Amendment of the Constitution is "society" protecting speech not an individual protecting speech. The "individual" does not protect the "individual's " speech. If you want to protect speech , you must give a rationale for SOCIETY to protect speech. Otherwise, why should society protect individual speech , if you don't give a social, political rationale for it ?
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Grammatical language is a product of consciousness, which exists only in the individual mind, not in society as a whole.
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CB: There is no collective conscious mind, but grammar is a social product, the product of a society of minds, not an individual mind.
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Protecting speech means respecting conscious thought, not promoting beneficial actions. Consciousness, as well as society, is intrinsically valuable. That's the problem. We have to balance the rights of one against the other.
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