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Now Are You Offended?
Dec. 8th, 2004 08:10 pmHere's a quote I saw today from someone I don't see speak out often...
There's an interesting point. I see a little different side, since maybe here in the states we have the right to free speech protected by the Bill of Rights, where it isn't in Great Britain, and is up for interpretation, we Americans have to fight for the freedom amongst ourselves, fighting self-censorship in it's various methods. Certainly there's the overt methods, book burnings and libraries that are forced by cities to refuse books, or federal commissions that fine various media telling them what they must not show, or cannot say, always after that genie has already left the bottle, and everyone has already talked about it to death around the water cooler.
It's always interesting that censorship is about trying to re-capture something that cannot be captured.
Still, there's the little notions, the quiet forms of hushing things that really are the bigger problems with a society that isn't willing to be open and honest. See if you can follow me here. Being "politically correct" stops the open flow of ideas, the willingness to question, the freedom to wonder why.
Sure, you get the ugliness, the awfulness, the hate, but with that, you also get the opportunity to try to inform, correct and make right. For every stupid story one side puts out, you can probably can find another that will debunk it. Unfortunately it's created the culture of Red vs. Blue, and shows like Crossfire, but it's part of the contentious society we live in. I guess no one is truly correct (I hasten to use the word "right") about anything.
For every Jerry Springer and and Jerry Fallwell, there's still the ability to enjoy Southpark and the Daily Show, or tune into Satellite Radio and HBO. Hopefully they won't ruin that.
I'm not meaning to be mean, or vicious, or attack others, but he has a point, to lose the ability to actually be able to say, well anything, is to lose everything. We become enslaved.
"To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion - that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas - any ideas even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society. And the law which attempts to say you can criticise or ridicule ideas as long as they are not religious ideas is a very peculiar law indeed. It all points to the promotion of the idea that there should be a right not to be offended. But in my view the right to offend is far more important than any right not to be offended. The right to ridicule is far more important to society than any right not to be ridiculed because one in my view represents openness - and the other represents oppression." - Rowan Atkinson, AKA Blackadder
There's an interesting point. I see a little different side, since maybe here in the states we have the right to free speech protected by the Bill of Rights, where it isn't in Great Britain, and is up for interpretation, we Americans have to fight for the freedom amongst ourselves, fighting self-censorship in it's various methods. Certainly there's the overt methods, book burnings and libraries that are forced by cities to refuse books, or federal commissions that fine various media telling them what they must not show, or cannot say, always after that genie has already left the bottle, and everyone has already talked about it to death around the water cooler.
It's always interesting that censorship is about trying to re-capture something that cannot be captured.
Still, there's the little notions, the quiet forms of hushing things that really are the bigger problems with a society that isn't willing to be open and honest. See if you can follow me here. Being "politically correct" stops the open flow of ideas, the willingness to question, the freedom to wonder why.
Sure, you get the ugliness, the awfulness, the hate, but with that, you also get the opportunity to try to inform, correct and make right. For every stupid story one side puts out, you can probably can find another that will debunk it. Unfortunately it's created the culture of Red vs. Blue, and shows like Crossfire, but it's part of the contentious society we live in. I guess no one is truly correct (I hasten to use the word "right") about anything.
For every Jerry Springer and and Jerry Fallwell, there's still the ability to enjoy Southpark and the Daily Show, or tune into Satellite Radio and HBO. Hopefully they won't ruin that.
I'm not meaning to be mean, or vicious, or attack others, but he has a point, to lose the ability to actually be able to say, well anything, is to lose everything. We become enslaved.
