The Values of Free Expression

 

The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, religion, press, the right to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government. The rights protected under the First Amendment are what, for many of us, constructs the idea of America. The reason for this is that together, these freedoms make up our collective free expression, which brings many benefits to the American way of life. These benefits are illustrated by the Eight Values of Free Expression, which are as follows: Marketplace of ideas, participation in self-government, stable change, individual self-fulfillment, check on governmental power, promoting tolerance, promoting innovation, protecting dissent. Of these values, a couple resonates with me most.

 First, the value of stable change. In a society, there are bound to be individuals who feel angry about particular policies and alienated from the crowd. When these citizens are allowed to speak out and “vent” about their perceived issues in society, that community will be more stable because people will be less likely to behave violently. Not only is there value in minimizing the risk of the formation of dangerous, violent groups of understood individuals with minority viewpoints, but what I believe is even more important is the value of protecting citizens from being targeted or acted against because of their views, speech and strongly held opinions. 

The next value that holds a special significance for me is the value of promoting tolerance. Free expression promotes tolerance because our practice of protecting all speech, including speech we find hateful or personally upsetting, teaches us to be more tolerant in many aspects of life, beyond speech. Thus, free expression shapes a better, more tolerant society. This value is the one that is absolutely most important to me. So many problematic events in our history occurred because of a lack of tolerance. There is value in a hateful speech in that it teaches us valuable lessons including why it should be condemned. This is how norms for acceptable behavior are established. For example, for many years, hate speech and what we would today consider inappropriate and offensive language was allowed on television. Things like the use of the n-word and depictions of Blackface were common. This was during times when Black Americans were discriminated against on a mass scale in systems and daily living. The offensive content, although not seen as problematic by some at the time, played a huge part in the progression of Black people in this country, because we as a society were able to learn from it and grow apart from that painful part of our history. Freedom of expression promotes expression, and expression promotes the establishment of social norms, and typically speaking, social norms discourage conflict. Therefore, even though the free expression may, in the short term, lead to some debates and disagreements, in the end, it does bring us together.

Finally, the last value I will discuss is the value of protecting dissent. Similar to the others, this value discusses the expression of the minority. Our system was not built to lead with intimidation. Minority views are protected regardless of how unpopular. I find this so important because there is value in having the ability to form, hold, and share our own unique opinions. As a person who doesn’t often stick to the status quo, it's encouraging to know that even stand-alone opinions and criticisms cannot be persecuted or silenced. This includes criticisms of the government. This is extremely important because as patriotic Americans, we can criticize our government and be a part of actually bringing change to it.