© David Saunders
I’ve begun to doubt the merits of freedom of speech. The concept was developed in an age before social media, which is quickly making a mockery of this hard-won freedom. These days, it’s just too easy for any witless chump to pass the most inane of comments, and for it to be broadcast immediately to the world. If people had to work harder for their voice to be heard, perhaps they’d take more time to question the value of their words.
As an example, here’s what Albert Camus had to say on the broad topic of ‘freedom’.
“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
Albert Camus lived in an era when to broadcast anything beyond your immediate vicinity required time, money and effort – only thoughts and words of self-evident value made it into the public domain. You may agree, you may disagree, but Mr Camus has, at the very least, given us something interesting to think about. He has made some contribution to our cultural understanding of a complex metaphysical subject.
In the interests of comparison, here’s a selection of what Twitter users have to say on the same subject.
“I've done all I had to do today. #freedom”
I’m pretty sure that not even my closest friends give two shits about whether I manage to achieve all of my goals today. That’s my business. This person has wasted their opportunity to use the unprecedented power that Twitter provides, by making a statement that need never have left the confines of their own skull.
“EARN UP TO $ 10 per 1000 views #money #earnings #visits #financial #freedom #paidtowrite #sites”
Twitter also provides the unprecedented power to take evocative words like ‘freedom’, stick a hashtag on the front, and twist them into a transparent attempt to scam the easily bewildered. Previously, some horrible little man would have had to actively waste his life knocking on doors and handing out flyers to ensnare people with the manipulative nonsense we now call ‘spam’. This is the toxic fallout that unchecked freedom spills into the twinkly ocean of knowledge.
“#anonymous Declaration - January 15 is the day to stand for #freedom http://t.co/natNjCW via @WhyWeProtest”
This is the biggest mockery of freedom of speech you’re likely to find. Thousands of anonymous keyboard-jockeys are now free to click the ‘retweet’ button, and instantly broadcast their profound support for ‘freedom’, without actually saying or doing anything that might cause them strain, either physically or mentally. These people are truly the kind of mindless, bleating sheep who should automatically forfeit all rights to a retweet button, and maybe buttons in general. I hope their trousers fall down.
It’s probably too late to backtrack on freedom of speech. Humanity as a culture is too convinced of its merits. Maybe we can’t remove people’s right to speak – but maybe, somehow, we can remove their right to be listened to.
Excellent read Jamie. Maybe we should devise a test to discern between the top 22% rational, responsible individuals and the bottom 78% little bleaters who would voluntarily smile inanely as T-mobile pimp their faces out. Then stage a national campaign convincing those 78% to have their voiceboxs removed and their fingers filed down and very finely sharpened. We could hire T-mobile's advertising branch for the campaign.
ReplyDeleteThe last quote is my favourite... a day to stand for freedom!! Planned liberty at any time just smells oblivious. A day to stand for freedom would've seen tons more people getting laid and a complete halt to industry.
This really says an awful lot about the importance people place on their own freedom, or rather how many are either unaware of the responsibility of liberty, or find it a burden worthy of their ignorance. As you said, before social media Liberty was in itself a great virtue. Attaining truer freedoms is palmed-off as long as I get to watch the game or consume nasty meat at McDonalds.
Hopefully Twitter will eventually evolve many of its users into beings whose minds cannot think beyond 140 letters. These poor bastards will quickly forget about the world-wide emigration to Planet Logical and their existence will be a thing of the past.
Loving the title and the content mate, keep it up!