Writer's Block: First Amendment
Jan. 19th, 2012 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
royalmarriage[Error: unknown template qotd]
When I first saw this question, I thought, "I can't actually think of an answer to that," and then I realised that that was kind of the point. I've grown up in a culture, a society, a nation, where freedom of speech - within certain legal parameters (i.e., no libel, no slander) and social parameters (i.e., it's not clever to be needlessly offensive to someone) - is a given. It's like breathing, it's just totally ingrained in our civilisation. I can't imagine what it would be like to live without being able to breathe; and I can't imagine what it would be like to live without being able to freely express myself.
When I first saw this question, I thought, "I can't actually think of an answer to that," and then I realised that that was kind of the point. I've grown up in a culture, a society, a nation, where freedom of speech - within certain legal parameters (i.e., no libel, no slander) and social parameters (i.e., it's not clever to be needlessly offensive to someone) - is a given. It's like breathing, it's just totally ingrained in our civilisation. I can't imagine what it would be like to live without being able to breathe; and I can't imagine what it would be like to live without being able to freely express myself.