[lbo-talk] what's the matter with kids today?

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Feb 1 07:36:50 PST 2005



> USA Today - January 31, 2005
>
> U.S. students say press freedoms go too far
> Survey reveals some surprising attitudes
>
> By Greg Toppo
>
> One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more
> restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper
> stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released
> today.

I am not unsympathetic toward such sentiments. Freedom of speech, as any other law, serves to advance common good (free speech) not give the license to destroy it. As such, it is not absolute, but contingent on the situation.

It is one thing to guarantee freedom of expression where there are many independent voices. But in a situation when a few corporate megaphones drown all independent voices while hiding behind the freedom of speech principle - those megaphones need to be shut down because they undermine the common good which the principle under the guise of which they operate protects.

There should be no freedom for the enemies of freedom. Otherwise, democracy would be nothing more than a suicide pact, as it has no natural defenses against fascism.

This seems to me like common sense, and most people can grasp that intuitively. However, this is a country of fundamentalist adherence to the letter and form dove-tailing with pomo nihilism claiming that there are no fixed rules, everything is as legitimate as anything else, anything goes. Hence lamenting and kvetching.

Wojtek



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