Freedom to speak

 

This year has seen universities banning speakers, just in case it may offend a student! The insanity of paying the equivalent of a deposit on your first mortgage, for little to no real education, while those at the top of the educational food-chain are on rather substantial remuneration packages, for delivering less and less, eroding the true value of education under the guise of political correctness and protection of imagined civilities of some of it's student body, is surely the road to an Authoritarian, dystopian state, not unlike the imagining's of Equilibrium.

 

To which I place this quote from Salman Rushdie, no stranger to free speech himself:

 

"Now look, I'm in favour of good manners... But to equate good manners... with the liberty to say what one thinks, even if people don't like it, is to make a false comparison... Ideas are not people.

 

Being rude about an idea, is not the same as being rude about your Aunt... so if you don't like the book, close the book. If you don't like the movie, don't go to see the movie. You are as free as the makers.

 

They have the right to speak and you have the right not to listen, if you fear it will upset you... But what you don't have, is the right to use your alleged offended-ness as a reason to stop other people from speaking."

 

Students should be actively encouraged to attend speeches from characters that may be seen as offensive by some and used as a testing ground. Questioning or the orator, the Socratic method applied fully and openly, is the only way to advance thought. Banning a speaker on grounds of offended-ness and political correctness is one way to ensure the further dumbing down of a nation.