Post #3 Eight Values of Freedom
In terms of the Constitution, free expression in America tells us that We The People are our own “though police” meaning that the government cannot prevent us from expressing and publishing our own opinions to the public . This is a critical principle that was not only fundamental to our founding of the nation, but is also continuously demonstrated in practice today. Below, I have picked out three of the eight values of expression that I believe are relevant to me and to the current political climate we are living in today.
It has been proposed that a society where hostile and neglected citizens are free to express themselves, or "vent," will become more level-headed since people would be more reluctant to resort to violence. It's also been emphasized that encouraging the frustrated and dissatisfied public to speak candidly allows the political office holders to closely assess potentially hazardous groups that can often operate in the shadows. Allowing such venting is, in the end, in the government's own self-interest and improves homogeneity. I believe that this value of freedom is very prevalent in America today and has been ever-relevant in the last 10 years. We see stable change in action in America through various protest groups such as Black Lives Matter and March for live where for the most part these groups are able to present their standing on certain issues in public places in front of the American government without fear of prosecution.
2. Individual Self-Fulfillment
Individuals can use free speech to vocalize oneself and generate one‘s personal identity and maybe in the hopes of discovering other with similar thought processes along the way. As a result, freedom of expression is then elevated to a level of human decency, respect, autonomy, and individuality. We see individual s f at play a lot today especially in social media. In the last election cycle I noticed a lot of online presents from people I follow that shared their political opinions in hopes to inform and persuade their followers. To us Americans this is an after thought because we don’t think twice when hitting that post button but other countries are not as lucky. China is a great example where all their social media applications are monitored by the government and if their is something on there opposing the government that could mean unfortunate events for your future.
It has been suggested that freedom of speech encourages us to be more open and accepting in other elements of society — and that a more tolerant society produces a stronger nation — particularly via our habit of granting protection to speech that we deem unpleasant or personally disturbing. The First Amendment protects hate speech, which seems contradictory, because society learns necessary social laws from it, including why it is terrible and deserving of punishment. It's how we disseminate acceptable conduct norms. This is a very important freedom value in my opinion because it this allows us to openly talk about opposing viewpoints with understanding and an open mind. I believe their are more people in America today that have middle grounded opinions rather than a completely polarized judgement that a lot of our main-stream media would have us believe today. A certain point that comes to mind is the stereotypes of republicans being so strict in their ways when in actually most republicans I know are very open minded and are open to discussion of topics they just have certain fundamental beliefs.
Personally I believe all of these values of freedom even the ones i didn’t list work hand in hand to promote and maintain great strength in America. I personally feel strongly to promoting tolerance because one day I hope to get back the the country where we once were where anyone could have any opinion about any topic they wanted, have a civil conversation with an acquaintance and still walk away from the discussion friends. Today this seems rare but I am hopeful for the future. I see Individual self-fulfillment in play today more than ever especially for my generation i hope it continues.
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