Sunday 18 November 2012

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it

'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.' E. B. Hall.

This quote is something which, although hard to accept has the ability to teach us a lesson on how our society should be living by. 

It is becoming more frequent for law suits and accusations of libel against those who state their personal views. This could lead to a very scary vision of the future whereby it is not possible for anyone to state their views in the fear of offending some person, somewhere. 

'Offense is taken not given.' 

If we are not careful we run the risk of a very controlled media through which stories are manipulated in order to fit the non-offensive criteria. The media as a sector is far from perfect (something I will be writing on soon) but they are an important function in an increasingly connected society. With globalization it is easy to assume that knowledge and information spreads freely but it is the media who spread this information, from the independent outlets to the multinational cooperation's. 

It is possible to take offense from anything as offense is a personal matter and cannot be contained.  Controversial comedian Jimmy Carr in his tour 'Being Funny' had a section at the end of the show talking about the most offensive joke. See below...

   
As offense is taken not given therefore the most offense joke in the world was a drawing. This drawing was done by a Danish artist and was of the prophet Muhammad with a bomb on his head. As a result of this protests were held all over the world in which 10 people lost their lives. 

Did he have the right to create the cartoon? Yes. It was published knowing the possible consequences and it was still published. At no point was he doing anything which could do anything other then offend people. This is a key fact as the comparison is between the action and reaction. Was any offense given? No. It is important to ask who is in the wrong do you blame those who 'gave' the offense or those who took it. 

'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.'