This weekend, I found myself wrapped up in a conversation that a bit like the one we had on the last days of class, about the issues of trying to have both equality between people and the freedom of speech. This topic came up in a discussion (in a Facebook chat, of all places) with Emma, one of my friends from high school, about Youtube. “Unfortunately Youtube makes it harder to put extremists in a bubble. Which is another reason why I really hate Youtube. Honestly, I think Youtube is a horrible invention,” she said. While I still have lot of faith in Youtube, Emma makes a good point. She mentioned how small groups like the West Boro Baptist Church are able to reach an audience they never would have otherwise and get a lot of (in Emma’s opinion, undue) attention. I brought up the issue of equality and freedom of speech, as this had come up before in a discussion about our Facebook friends talking about Osama Bin Ladin in their status updates. I mentioned the struggle between equality and freedom of speech and how it’s rather hard to have both. Emma replied back, “I think so, too. But at the same time, I think freedom of speech is misunderstood to think to have equality we must love instead of tolerate.”
Emma went on to explain that in order to have equality, one must except hate as part of the deal. I thought Emma made a good point, but at the same time, I was having a hard time dealing with what she was saying. Do we see really see equality as more about loving all people than tolerating? Is there a difference? Should there be a difference? I admit, I can sometimes be a bit too Rousseauist, especially with a Catholic background mixed in there, and think that the world would just be a better place if we all got along. I realize, especially after this class, that this is not quite true. Personally, I can’t see the world being a better place if I liked someone like Michael Crichton or Glenn Beck; in fact, my intense dislike of them has taught me more than liking them ever would. Honestly, I’ve learned a lot from the things I hate and also, in some ways, have mitigated that hate (I do at least understand where Glenn Beck is coming from, even if I will disagree with him for the rest of my life). I do, however, tolerate Beck and feel he has the right to say what he says (even though I really, really wish he didn’t). The West Boro Baptist Church really complicates things, though. One could argue that if perfect freedom of speech is perfect equality, that everyone gets to say what they want, no matter how hate-filled it is, then I should just let West Boro Baptist Church say their spiel and ignore them. But it’s not that easy. Emma says extremists should be put in a bubble – but does that really work? Even Emma, who believes in this idea of equal hate, dislikes the idea of Youtube which allows for this equality. Nothing is simple, it seems.
While I’m still floundering around, trying to understand this funny little space I inhabit between Rousseau’s Romanticism and a sort of Hobbesian realism, this class has given me a better foundation for that understanding. It’s begun to clear up the complexities I have in studying psychology, using Facebook and Youtube, and investigating science in general. As I’ve said before, I definitely have more questions than answers, but they’re better questions than what I started out with. I’ve begun to see topics from our class everywhere – in the news, in other classes, on Twitter – and I definitely feel like the ideas we discussed in this class are going to stick with me for a long time.
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