[lbo-talk] Cuba petition

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Mon Apr 14 15:45:27 PDT 2003


In an ideal world, one would have both full economic rights and near absolute freedom of speech. In the real world though, one often has to make some painful choices, so that one might well have to give up some freedom of expression, in order to better secure such economic rights as the right to education or the right to have best healthcare, that one's society can afford. It is a vulgar bourgeois prejudice, which privilages the former over the latter. In fact as Justin earlier pointed out, even from a bourgeois liberal standpoint, the restrictions that Cuba places on dissent can be justified by the fact that the country lives under a constant state of threat from its collosal neighbor to the north.

Jim F.

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003 18:23:19 EDT BrownBingb at aol.com writes:
>
>
> > So those signing that letter are the ones who will be able to
> fight a Cuba
> > invasion if it comes to it-- not the folks being silent as gross
> human
> > rights violations and executions happen there.
> >
> > -- Nathan Newman
>
> ^^^^^^^^^
>
> CB: The response from Cuba that was posted would tend to contradict
> your
> claim that these are gross human rights violations.
>
> You are taking an abstract and isolated view of freedom of speech
> unrelated
> to other human rights. In a word, and I don't mean this as name
> calling , but
> analytically, your approach is bourgeois-metaphysical . Human
> rights are a
> bundle , a whole. Economic rights are human rights too. Speech that
> tends to
> undermine economic democracy , i.e. might lead to restoration of
> capitalism,
> is itself a violation of human rights. The socialist and holistic
> conception
> of freedom of speech and all rights is that they involve not only
> rights, but
> responsibilities. What your conception comes down to is "license of
> speech"
> not "freedom of speech". Speech that tends to undermine other
> freedoms is
> not "free speech". "Free speech' is also "freeing speech:".
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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