Free Speech

I was driving listening to some Bad Religion the other day and I got to thinking about whether or not Freedom of Speech is a good thing.

What if the right to mouth-off against our government and our society is really a built-in pressure valve to prevent actual resistance? So that when we the people are fed up we can go have some beers and complain to our buds, or we can blog, or we can stand on a park bench and scream - all of which calms us down before we ever actually do anything about our complaints?

In oppressive societies without the right to free speech, the complaints go unheard and the pressure rises until the people do something to change the conditions they are unhappy with. In our society the pressure never gets the chance to build. We hold concerts, we use the media as a soapbox, we have ineffectual marches - but there is very little action towards change.

The combination of convenience, comfort, and free speech seems to me a perfect formula for domination.

Originally posted on September 22, 2005 on Myspace.