America's Birth Pangs: Are We Really Free?

During the birth pangs of America in Colonial times, the idea of freedom of speech was the definitive rallying cry of the soon-to-be Americans. However, I would suggest for your thinking that the hypocritical conditions under which the idea of the so-called freedom of speech was heralded still exist today. American wannebees back then did not care nor understand freedom of speech. Neither do they today.

To the colonists, freedom of speech was a device. It was an ideological tool to achieve a goal. It was not an ideology to be embraced for its own sake. It was not something to be cherished, sought for, or to die for as is the goal for humans to be truly free human beings in the pursuit of happiness. They did not seek it as an end in and of itself.

During the fight for independence, colonists actively sought out and persecuted those with dissenting views. They destroyed the printing presses of those who supported the British government's position. They prosecuted those who supported the British ideology. No one was allowed to entertain the idea that perhaps the colonists were wrong and the Crown was right. The colonists continued to punish those with a dissenting view even after independence was won.

It was through the Alien and Sedition Acts, officially recognized in 1798, by which a dissenter could be imprisoned for up to two years for offering a dissenting view.

"The Sedition Act says anyone opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States could be imprisoned for up to two years. It was also illegal to write, print, utter, or publish anything critical of the president or Congress."[1]

Though not an official law until 1798, the revolutionists, crying all the while, "freedom of speech," actively suppressed and punished anyone who held a dissenting view. Later, it actually became a law, thus preventing anyone from criticizing the President and or Congress.

Freedom of Speech? Oh, really?

Benjamin Franklin's own brother, who was persecuted by the British government for printing dissenting views, pre-revolution, declared himself completely comfortable, post-revolution, with prosecuting those with a dissenting view or those who held different ideas.

Freedom of Speech, to the colonists, pre- and post-revolution, evidently only applied to those who agreed with their ideas. Anyone else, anyone with a different idea, or anyone who dissented from the majority could be, and was indeed, legally prosecuted.

Oh, you say, that was then and certainly it goes on no longer. Really?

Try this little experiment:

If you are a public school teacher, try making your dissenting view concerning the origins of homosexuality known. Try making your position that you believe homosexuality is a choice and not intrinsic public. Try telling others that gays are made, not born and see what happens.

At the very least you will be forced, in order to keep your job, into psychiatric therapy to be readjusted. Or, you will lose your employment.

A dissenting view would not be and is not tolerated.

If you have children in public schools, try complaining when the school district orders your child and her classmates be taught the Gay Party Line regarding the origins of homosexuality and see what happens.

Better yet, if you really want to see how fast the you-know-what would hit the fan, let a public school teacher make known that she is a Christian and see what happens.

I have recently been involved in a situation in which my freedom to write about certain issues, issues that seem to be unpleasant for a group of apparently influential Americans, has come into question. I've been forced, through a relationship with someone I care deeply about, to curtail my writing about these issues. These "Americans" saw how to reach me, through someone I care about, to squelch my writing.

Leonard W. Levy, in his book, Emergence of a Free Press, says this:

"The American people simply did not believe or understand that freedom of thought and expression means equal freedom for the other person, especially the one with hated ideas. And neither do they today."[2]

The older I get the more I become convinced that both sides of the political spectrum, the democrats and the republicans, entertain a fascist approach.

"Fascists ideologically rebel against Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. One has the liberty to express a dissenting view. One has the equality not to be treated differently or harmed for your dissenting voice. Finally, one has fraternity to be loved by your neighbor, as Christ commanded, despite having different views. Whether fascism is running rampant in America today, I cannot say. It seems Americans have one foot in the door!"[3]

The question is do you, Mr. and Ms. American, have the freedom to express a dissenting view and not be treated differently or harmed for your dissent? Try the experiments mentioned earlier in this article and see what happens.

Take careful heed to what Philosopher John Stuart Mill said regarding freedom speech:

"[T]he peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."

But, as I've said in other articles, the power of a free exchange in a Market Place of Ideas in American discourse perhaps has never existed.

Are we really free?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts

[2] http://www.spectacle.org/597/why.html

[3] http://ezinearticles.com/?Free-Expression-Denied&id=67225