By USTAZ MARK BANG
Freedom from what? Our selves or one another? Some would say that to be free costs, and so what is the price of freedom?
To be truly free, we must not be who we are or who we have created to coexist with where we find ourselves. I would have to say that we exist in a system that requires us to fit into patterns or paths that limit our freedom. To be truly free we must escape ourselves to be free of ourselves. Take a break from being who you are, and you get this feeling of freedom. At least this is my take, and others may have their own expressions, thoughts, perceptions, or thinking as they are free to do so.
While that might not seem like a helpful answer at first glance, it is perhaps the most useful sentence in the entire world. It is the fanfiction equivalent of “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” and one that is far more descriptive and helpful because, quite honestly, free lunches do exist, but all magic does come with a price.
And all speech comes with a cost. Even in the most liberal nation, the most democratic nation—the most “free” nation you can imagine—that will let you say what you want, where you want, whenever you want—all speech comes with a cost. You can use the most insulting, racist, bigoted, transphobic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic epithets to your heart’s content, and the government will do nothing. It might even force your employer to keep employing you despite your views and your expression of those views.
However, people will judge you—your friends, your family, your employers, your employees, your customers present and future and past, and pretty much anyone else you come in contact with. They will judge you, and if they have any decency or a soul, they will find you wanting. They might not be able to act on it in a professional capacity, but they will. You might find yourself losing business—sure, your customers will give you reasons that sound plausible, but really it is because you are a bigot.
You might find yourself getting looked over for promotion or given crappy tasks to do to force you to quit of your own free will. After all, if you can express hate-filled views, why shouldn’t your employer make the workplace hostile to you? And you might find yourself losing friends, even family, because if you have a right to free speech, then you can be damn sure they do as well. “All magic comes with a price, dearie,” and so does all speech.
If you are going to exercise your “God-given right” to be an arsehole, then you should not be surprised to find that people are going to treat you like one. So my advice: before you decide to say something mean, offensive, bigoted, hate-filled, rude, racist, or otherwise crappy and defend it with the argument “free speech,” just consider what it sounds like from the other side. Imagine what you’d feel like if someone said that about you. And remember that all magic comes with a price dear. Freedom changed its meaning a lot in the long run. During the early reign, freedom meant freedom from slavery, rulers, and emperors. After that, its definition changed, but its idea is the same.
And of course, freedom changed its definition from country to country; for Syria, freedom is something else. In Indian society, freedom is the right given to an individual, like the right to speak, the right to marriage, the right to education, and many more. This again is incorrect because your family comes first in setting out rules for you. Freedom for women is a joke in India; as far as I have seen, women are a supplement for materialistic desires here, which is sad. That’s one reason why true freedom is difficult to find. Another reason is that teens are not free from going to school and college.
I have not seen many middle-class students skipping high school or college. Many times adults are not granted the freedom to marry their love. If then too you break any type of rule or ritual, society is another barrier that takes away your freedom. Freedom is only written in pages like the Constitution, not in reality. Many celebrities are trolled for their comments publicly. How can we say there is freedom to speak? True freedom is massacred in these cases.
International human rights law makes it clear that individual freedoms cannot be abused in order to limit the rights and freedoms of others. There are a few exceptions. Freedom from torture is absolute, as is freedom from an unfair trial. However, other freedoms, such as expression, assembly, manifestation of religion, and privacy, are not absolute.
Governments are entitled to impose restrictions, provided these are applied in a way that affects everyone equally, in order to protect other people. So, for example, dangerous material online, e.g., how to build a bomb, pedophilia, defamation, hate speech, dangerous misinformation that is likely to lead to violence or death, etc., can and indeed should be banned. Restrictions on personal liberty exist in human rights law, obviously for convicted criminals, but also in order to contain the disease. Demonstrations can be subject to permission, provided that any delay is temporary in order to arrange for road closures and a police presence to prevent violence and ensure the safety of everyone. “Public Staunchest Ally.”
The writer of this article is a Human Rights activist, writer, and professional teacher.