Review
Kevin Baldeosingh
This book by historian and political writer Timothy Garton Ash is an exhaustive treatment of all the various issues and arguments centring around free speech. And I do mean “exhaustive,” because Ash’s attention to every possible argument and his addiction to telling detail makes the book slow going at times. However, he also has an admirable talent for making complex arguments succinctly and forcefully.
His core position is that “the way to live together well in this world-as-city is to have more and better free speech...that entails discussing where the limits of freedom of expression and information should lie in important areas such as privacy, religion, national security and the ways we talk about human differences.”
The book is divided into two parts, titled Cosmopolis and User Guide. The first part looks at the philosophical arguments related to free speech, with chapters titled, Why Should Speech Be Free? and How Free Should Speech Be?
The second part looks at pragmatic (or political) applications of these arguments, in relation to violence, knowledge, journalism, diversity and, of course, religion.
In regard to this last, Ash points out an obvious but infrequently noted fact, “The struggles for free speech in 17th-century and 18th-century Europe and North America were crucially about the freedom to preach and practise different religions.” This issue arose when T&T was drafting its Equal Opportunities Act, when religious leaders lobbied for exemption from the offensive speech clauses.
Thus, although he is writing mainly for a developed nation audience, Ash’s book is quite relevant to a society like ours. For example, he points out that, “For at least 2,500 years, comedy and satire have enjoyed special licence to transgress the frontiers of civility, decency and decorum...For just as long, the powerful have been trying to suffocate the spirit of satire”, adding, “Humour is a deflater, a safety valve, a way of talking about things that we don’t otherwise discuss—and a priceless antidote to all fanaticisms.”
This raises the issue of the role of calypso (at least classical calypso) in T&T’s history. Similarly, Ash notes that “Hate speech laws is that they tend to encourage people to take offence rather than learn to live with it, ignore it or deal with it by speaking back.” Again, MPs might have benefited from this insight when the EOA legislation was being debated.
Ash’s discussion of the limits of free speech is especially invaluable, since he discusses issues rarely raised either by the opponents or proponents of free speech. For example, he makes a detailed analysis of the difference between hate speech and dangerous speech, discussing when one becomes the other.
He also makes short work of liberal apologists (although he describes himself as liberal), also known as Social Justice Warriors, noting that, “The physical integrity of the human person is one thing. Psychological well-being is another. Dignity is dignity. Equality is equality. They are all good things, but they are not all the same thing. Violations of them may not all properly be called violence.”
Once you have read this book, or just the parts that interest you, you’ll be familiar with just about every free speech argument there is. And that can help you decide when to keep your mouth shut.
BOOK INFO:
Free Speech,
Timothy Garton Ash.
Yale University Press, 2016.
ASIN: B01EUYN6WA; 504 pages.