The Eight Values of Free Expression
Of those values, the one that resonated the most with me was that of John Milton, the Marketplace of Ideas value. This is when truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, the truth will win out. And the grappling makes the truth even stronger. The idea behind the Marketplace of Ideas is that people should be allowed to say things that are false, because when those ideas go against those of the truth, the truth will end out on top. This resonated with me the most because it feels like a very strong representation of what democracy is about in our country. The idea that people can debate and argue their ideas and even though one is wrong, whether the person is aware of that or not, the truth will reign supreme is truly fascinating and makes sense. I feel that Milton was also trying to get at the fact that people will also come to understand the truth and the reason that it is so.
However, the value that I think is most important to our country is that of Individual Self-Fulfillment: Free speech enables individuals to express themselves and thereby create their own identity - and in the process perhaps, find kindred spirits. Individuality is perhaps the most important thing a society needs to understand and accept if it are to be ideal and functioning. Individuality is also a strong identity that separates us from the government, and allows the government to be controlled by those who are governed as stated in Professor Dean Smith's prerequisite for democracy. While people will be individuals, as stated in the value, it could also potentially bring out kindred spirits, which means those who share the same attitudes and characteristics. While it could, but does not necessarily, it does not take away from the individuality of the peoples.
The two values that I believe associate most with what is going on in our world today is the Check on Governmental Power — the freedom of the press enables citizens to learn about abuses of power — and then do something about the abuse at the ballot box if they feel so moved; the other is Promote Tolerance — It has been argued that freedom of speech, especially through our practice of extending protection to speech that we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to become more tolerant in other aspects of life — and that a more tolerant society is a better society. We, along with the press, are part of the check-and-balance system to restrains government power and the abuse of it. There is a lot of censorship going on in the current United States of America, for example, "Murthy v. Missouri"(formerly "Biden v. Missouri") is a court case where Missouri, Louisiana, and many other private plaintiffs alleged that the first amendment was violated by federal officials who were coercing social media companies get rid of or dismiss their platforms content. This is a clear example of censorship that the people who the government are instated for should be made aware of. This is a perfect example of abuse of power, so the people must be aware so they can do something about it if they see fit. Therefore, we will not end up in a society where the government controls what the people say and see. Another big vehicle for censorship is cancel culture, which in my opinion is stupid in most cases. This culture will claim offense for others', who honestly may not even be offended, and cancel someone who said or did something in the past when times were different. I'm not saying that makes it ok, however, if those people were to understand the promotion of tolerance, they would understand that society as a whole begins to understand these things and that's how we evolve.
It is truly amazing how these values, although created and thought about a long time ago, still hold value to this very day and should very much continue to be studied and materialized.
