Free Speech Is Under Assault in America

Free speech is under assault in America. The latest example is the rejection of opposing points of view on campus of the University of California, at Berkeley.

Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter was scheduled to speak at Berkeley, Thursday, April 27, 2017. She canceled her appearance due to safety concerns. A group, ironically tagged “Antifa,” or “anti-First Amendment,” had threatened violent protests if she did appear. Berkeley authorities stated they could not provide adequate security for Coulter.

This has been characterized as a defeat for free speech in America. Is that a correct assessment? It is, after all, a cancellation on one university campus. Actually, it is the second time a conservative has been shut down at Berkeley in 2017. In February, rioters forced out speaker Milo Yiannopoulos using arson and other property destruction while law enforcement largely stayed away.

Other Protested Speakers

It should be noted, this movement to silence dissent is not limited to one university. Early in April, at Claremont McKenna College, just a short distance away from Berkeley, Heather Mac Donald, a speaker from the Manhattan Institute, was physically blocked by students from entering the venue.

Students at Middlebury College, in Vermont, chased Charles Murray, of the American Enterprise Institute, off the campus in March. And at the University of Missouri, on Nov. 9, 2015, student journalists were physically threatened when they tried to report about racial protests on campus.

However, the fact this latest episode occurred at Berkeley is most astounding. Historically, it is known as the “birthplace of the free-speech movement.” It was at Sproul Plaza, on campus grounds, activist Mario Savio broke open the barrier for students speaking out about political and social issues in the 1960s.

Free Speech Has a Controversial History

The right to free speech in America has always been controversial. From the birth of the nation, such a right legally granted to all the people was almost unthinkable, at least in practice. In 1787, the First Amendment to the Constitution enshrined free speech as a legal right. However, that concept had been theorized and written about for a long while before the U.S. appeared on the historical landscape.

Moreover, the history of free speech is far older than the Constitution. Ancient Greek city-states had a practice of allowing citizens to speak and debate freely in the public square. This practice continued into the days of the Roman Empire. It is even spoken of in the Bible. In Acts, chapter 17, Paul debates and reasons with philosophers in both the marketplace and the Areopagus, which was a forum in Athens for:

the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there…[to] spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

By presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ, Paul was exercising free speech. Though the message did cause some controversy, there was no violence. In other places Paul preached, free speech was not accepted or protected. He spent a lot of time in various prisons as a result of intolerance for free speech.

Free Speech Must Include Opposition Speech

If free speech does not include oppositional speech, it is no longer free. In modern history, there is a chilling example of this principle. In Nazi Germany, the scene was set for the rise of “Der Führer” by the infamous “Brown-shirts.” These were Hitler’s original storm troopers. They were basically gangs of young people who set about to violently shut down speech that opposed the antisemitism of the Nazi Party.

When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, he began a strident campaign to eliminate any group that opposed him:

In May 1933, the writings of Jewish and other “un-German” authors were burned in a communal ceremony at Berlin’s Opera House.

It was a rapid descent from book burning to committing serious violent acts against opposing groups who dared to speak against the Nazis. This steady march reached a historic moment with the advent of “Kristallnacht,” or “The Night of Broken Glass,” on Nov. 9 and 10 of 1938:

Nazis in Germany torched synagogues, vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews. In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, …some 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps.

It was a scant five years from the time opposition writings were burned to the era of the concentration camp. If history teaches any lessons about free speech, it teaches that oppositional speech must be allowed. Otherwise, liberty is on the way out of the public sphere, and tyranny is sure to follow.

By D.T. Osborn
Edited by Jeanette Smith

Sources:

TheBlaze: Violent mob of angry liberals shut down conservative, pro-police speaker at Calif. college (Video)
Boston Globe: ‘Bell Curve’ author attacked by protesters at Middlebury College
HISTORY: KRISTALLNACHT
National Review: Berkeley Didn’t Birth ‘Free Speech,’ but It Seems Intent to Bury It
National Review: Berkeley Forgets Its Purpose
USA TODAY: U. of Missouri professor under fire in protest flap
The English Standard Version Classic Reference Bible: Crossway Bibles

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Wally Gobetz’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License