Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Pursuit of Happiness: The Rights to Free Speech and Censorship

My dear child,

Society can be quite a confusing place. Some people are quite vigorous in fighting for free speech while condemning censorship. Others may be the opposite. However, they are actually two sides of the same coin. The perfection of one depends upon the perfection of the other. The purpose of both in the long run is to help us grow.

You are aware of how honey is good, right? It tastes good and has some health benefits. However, do you know that if given to a baby in their first year, they can became gravely sick? As your father, I not only have a right, but I also had an obligation to prevent you getting honey until you turned one. Instead, I must give you food that helps you grow so that your body was mature enough. Then you could enjoy the goodness of honey.

Why do I bring this up? Because this applies to more than just food. I must also protect you from some ideas or things that can be dangerous for you. I must do this until you become mature, that is when you can handle them. Until then, I have a duty out of love and as a parent to raise you with good things and ideas. Then when you have a good foundation, you can endure the evils you may come across.

You also have a right to personally censor things that you cannot handle. A recovering alcoholic should not be receiving advertisements for beer. Likewise a man struggling with pornography should been allowed to avoid corresponding materials. And if someone is worn out from discussing a topic, he should be allowed to rest, though he should be honest and open to conversing later. The noble purpose of censorship is to protect an individual so that he can mature.

At the same time the noble purpose of free speech is to grow. The freedom to speak is deeply linked to the freedom to think. We should be allowed to speak about what's important to us. We also must speak up when we notice areas of concern or improvement. These help us protect our rights, see that our needs are fulfilled, and help others. This right is indeed quite important and must be cherished.

In order to achieve perfection of either right, both need to be in harmony. Can a tree grow if it has little room and access to water? Will not a tree grow weak and maybe even die if given acid? Must not the roots of a planted tree be contained so as to not cause destruction to surrounding infrastructure? So too censorship and free speech must be. The key to understanding the proper limits is love again.

Censorship and free speech are two important rights that help us achieve perfection. They not only serve to help and protect us, but others as well. When these two are put under the guidance of love, they may reach their harmonious perfection.

With Love,
N. D. Moharo

P. S. "Hate speech" and bullying are evils and abuses of these rights. However, you must be careful to limit what you consider hate speech. I say that it it be limited to only words where the intention is explicitly that they hate you. If you must infer the hatred, then it's safer to assume the hatred is really on your side. E.g. Dialog where someone says he doesn't believe siblings should be married to each other due to beliefs is not hate speech, but where someone says he wishes them to die a horrid death certainly is hate speech and should be condemned as such. Falsely accusing something to be hate speech only promotes hatred. Let's promote love and not hate.