Daily Archives: May 22, 2017

Theresa May and Angela Merkel have quite a bit in common. For example, both are suspiciousmore than suspiciousof the free market and both are daughters of clergymen(speculation, of course, but those two facts might not be entirely unconnected). Both are authoritarians.

Authoritarians dont like speech that is, well, too free, and that, of course, brings them up against the unruly reality of the Internet.

Foreign Affairs

In April 2017, the German cabinet passed new legislation on hate speech that the German Bundestag is scheduled to adopt in the summer. The law enables Germany to fine social media companies up to 50 million euros ($55 million) for not reacting swiftly enough to reports of illegal content or hate speech.

The law has an aptly German name Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz, or Network Enforcement Law. But its main target is U.S. tech giants, which provide the main social media networks in Germany. The clash between U.S. social media companies and the German government is about more than deleting hateful online comments. It is a fight about how much free speech a democracy can take.

Ponder that last sentence:

It is a fight about how much free speech a democracy can take.

And then re-read the First Amendment.

Foreign Affairs:

The new law applies to social media platforms with over two million users and imposes large fines if they do not delete posts contravening hate speech law within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. In response, a broad opposition coalition swiftly emerged. Although the law excludes journalistic platforms where someone is already accountable for content, such as online newspapers, the German Journalists Association joined civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers in signing a joint statement warning that the law jeopardizes the core principles of free expression. In addition, the Global Network Initiative (GNI) an international coalition of tech companies, civil society groups, investors, and academics asserted that the law poses a threat to open and democratic discourse. These groups worry that the law might lead to broad censorship of the Internet and create a precedent for more authoritarian regimes to further restrict free speech on the Web.

They are right to worry.

Foreign Affairs:

Created in 1949, the West German federal constitution, also known as the Basic Law or Grundgesetz, contained a central paradox. Many West German politiciansconservatives and social democrats alikebelieved in a militant democracy, one where free speech could be constrained to protect democratic norms. Essentially, democrats had to use undemocratic means to protect democracy. Article 18 of the constitution states that anyone abusing rights like freedom of speech to undermine a free democratic order might forfeit those basic rights.

In the specific circumstances of Germany just after the fall of the Third Reich, that might (just) be understandable, but now?

It also raises the question of who decides what speech is to be defined as suspect. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes and all that.

Foreign Affairs quotes German Justice Minister Heiko Maas as saying that freedom of speech has boundaries.

And:

Maas aims to expand Germanys approach to all of Europe, probably by introducing similar legislation in Brussels. With Emmanuel Macron as Frances newly elected president, Maas might succeed. Macron said during his campaign that he wanted to stop fake news and regulate the Internet because today certain players are activists and have a very important role in the campaign.

Who defines what is fake news?

We are often toldthese days that Merkel and Macron (in contrast to wicked Donald Trump) are thedefenders of the liberal order, but theirs seems to be a liberal order where free speech is kept on a leash. That does notlook to me like a liberalism worthy of the name.

The reference to plans to neuter free speech elsewhere in Europe (ie the EU) suggests that post-Brexit Britain might escape. That would be optimistic. As Brits discovered under Blair, Brown and Cameron, reining in free speech is popular across the UKs political class (even more so in Scotland, incidentally), but Theresa May, that accomplished enabler of the predatory state, is likely to make it even worse.

The Independent (my emphasis added):

While much of the internet is currently controlled by private businesses like Google and Facebook, Theresa May intends to allow government to decide what is and isnt published, the manifesto suggests.The new rules would include laws that make it harder than ever to access pornographic and other websites. The government will be able to place restrictions on seeing adult content and any exceptions would have to be justified to ministers, the manifesto suggests.The manifesto even suggests that the government might stop search engines like Google from directing people to pornographic websites. We will put a responsibility on industry not to direct users even unintentionally to hate speech, pornography, or other sources of harm, the Conservatives write.

But perhaps most unusually [technology companies] would be forced to help controversial government schemes like its Prevent strategy, by promoting counter-extremist narratives

The Conservatives will also seek to regulate the kind of news that is posted online and how companies are paid for it. If elected, Theresa May will take steps to protect the reliability and objectivity of information that is essential to our democracy.

So Britains political class is going to protect the reliability and objectivity of information.

What could possibly go wrong?

Go here to read the rest:
Against Free Speech: Merkel, May (and Macron) - National Review

You know, when I think about free things, I always thought that must be a bargain of some kind. Good, free stuff is pretty rare these days.

Lately Ive been scratching my head thinking about this term free speech and all the many voices I seem to hear each day while others must be keeping their free speech card locked away for later use.

In the spring of each year as commencement exercises begin to dot our landscape with graduation ceremonies, there always seems to be a controversy involving some invited guest speaker.

This year was no different.

Ann Coulter, a conservative commentator who had been invited to speak at the University of California, Berkley was canceled over objections by students.

Free speech seemed to take a hit on this graduation stage.

Texas Southern University canceled a scheduled commencement address Saturday by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn after students at the college didnt particularly care for the senators politics and started a petition to complain about his invitation.

Free speech obviously didnt fare too well in this venue either.

Politics, liberalism and an ongoing dispute with conservatism and vice versa always seem to occupy our headlines this time of the year.

The battle between our youth and their dreams of the future, and the establishment and those who find it important to maintain the status quo, seems like an unsolvable conflict.

I remember reading Platos Republic so many years ago and focusing on a story shared by the philosopher about a ship sailing the high seas.

It seemed that the captain of the sailing ship was quite old and maybe set in his ways. But he was also a sea captain who had much experience in navigating the waters under the guidance of the stars above, and he had seen many things and possessed much knowledge.

As the young crew had many discussions about the captain, they began to criticize his performance and became dissatisfied with his leadership. Eventually, a mutiny might occur and the youth, in their passions and desires for change, would dispose of the captain.

A young crew member would replace him.

The only problem suggested in Platos story was that none of the young men possessed any navigation skills. The young crew had a desire to lead but had little basic experience to do so.

This same notion exists today in many places of the work environment, politics and government. Everyone wants to be a leader, but not everyone is prepared to become one.

Democracy sometimes suffers from the same dilemma. The oldest person and leader is often not the wisest, but might have some knowledge. The youth are not really any better prepared to navigate those waters of politics.

Plato was actually criticizing that concept of democracy.

His solution? Only true philosophers are the best leaders, because they possess the good attributes and qualities required of leadership.

That sounds good enough, I thought, after reading the book many years ago. But I dont know many virtuous philosophers either, I sadly concluded.

Freedom of speech is a very noble idea, too, but the expression of thought and conversation should never be restricted by political might or petition, if it is really free.

And shouldnt freedom of speech apply to everyone?

When students use their numbers to cancel a speakers performance or our president suggests that we no longer need political briefings, which really embraces or understands that concept of real free speech?

Even in Athens, where Democracy was born, the greatest travesty of Greek history, in my opinion, was the death of Socrates at the hands of leaders who objected to his free speech and thoughts.

As Socrates drank his potion of hemlock late that evening, and waited for death to arrive as he lay upon his pillow, maybe he thought too about that notion of free speech and how it seemingly did not apply to him.

Is there any such thing as free speech in this world?

I dont believe there is.

And maybe I wont be able to tell anyone.

Lloyd Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

Go here to read the rest:
Lloyd Waters: Is there such a thing as 'free speech'? - Herald-Mail Media

As the graduates of Bucknell University's Class of 2017 stepped across the stage on the Malesardi Quadrangle to receive their degrees on Sunday, May 21, each passed by a banner the class designed together four years earlier. Above and below an image of the Christy Mathewson-Memorial Gateway, the banner proclaimed a motto, inscribed in Latin and English: "The power to transform the future lies within our differences."

From the ceremony's opening invocation to the Commencement address delivered by journalist Fareed Zakaria to student speaker Max Ferrer's closing words to his peers, the banner's message echoed. Its words signified not only a defining aspect of the class' Bucknell experience, but a lesson to take into the world that is perhaps more critical today than ever before.

"The whole purpose of the liberal arts has been to hear people out, to listen to opposing views," Zakaria, the host of CNN's flagship foreign-affairs program, Fareed Zakaria GPS, said in his address. "I don't want you to turn your back to people. I want you to turn your face, your mind. Debate with them. Argue with them."

Zakaria, the author of the 2015 book In Defense of a Liberal Education, has long been a proponent of the liberal arts approach at the heart of a Bucknell education, arguing for its effectiveness not just in preparing graduates for their first jobs, but also in building adaptable skills that will serve them for a lifetime. He observed in his speech that others have recognized the wisdom in this outlook. Technology visionaries Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have all been informed and guided by liberal arts in their insights and approaches to leadership, he said.

But Zakaria, who is also a columnist for The Washington Post and a New York Times-bestselling author, noted that the liberal arts have more recently come under fire from a different direction. Particularly on college campuses, protesters have increasingly sought to silence voices they don't agree with, mounting attacks on the freedom of speech so fundamental to the liberal arts that "strike me as fundamentally illiberal, if not un-American," Zakaria said.

"Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, is not freedom for people we like, for warm, fuzzy ideas that we find comfortable. It is for ideas that you find offensive," Zakaria said. "There is no idea that is beyond the pale. Everything should be within the arena and should be worth contesting."

889 graduates Zakaria addressed his remarks to the nearly 900 undergraduate and graduate students receiving their degrees at Commencement, and the more than 6,000 faculty, staff, family members, friends and other well-wishers who gathered on Bucknell's Malesardi Quadrangle to see the graduates off. | See more photos from Commencement Weekend

The University presented degrees to 889 graduates (including 19 who completed their studies in January) at the Commencement ceremony. They comprised 868 students receiving bachelor's degrees and 21 receiving master's degrees. Among undergraduates, 699 received degrees in the arts & sciences (including 123 from the School of Management) and 169 received degrees in engineering. The graduates represent 37 states and 19 nations. | Learn more about the Class of 2017.

In addition to celebrating the achievements of the graduating class, Provost Barbara Altmann recognized five professors with awards for excellence in teaching: Professors Emily Dryden, mathematics; G.C. Waldrep, English; Peter Judge, psychology and animal behavior; Kris Trego, classics & ancient Mediterranean studies; and Martin Ligare, physics & astronomy. Professor Heidi Lorimor, linguistics, received the Bucknell University Writing Across the Curriculum Award of Excellence.

University President John Bravman also recognized Doris and Bob Malesardi '45 for their generosity to Bucknell. In 2016 the Malesardis pledged $20 million to Bucknell, the largest single commitment in the University's history, all of it dedicated to financial aid endowment. A matching gift program they started, the Malesardi Match, has additionally amplified that commitment by a further $20 million. In honor of their leadership and loyalty to Bucknell, the academic heart of the University was renamed the Malesardi Quadrangle last year.

We question In his address to his graduating peers, student speaker Max Ferrer remarked that the spirit of critical inquiry and constant curiosity Zakaria extolled in his speech was a hallmark of a Bucknell education.

"As Bucknellians, we question," Ferrer said. "Bucknell is an environment where we are taught to question what we are told."

From the question that challenged the students as they entered Bucknell, "What am I going to major in?" to its evolution confronting them now, "What am I going to do with my life?" constant inquiry defined the class' journey to this day, Ferrer said.As the members of the Class of 2017 prepared to depart the University, Ferrer implored them to "keep questioning."

"Question the standard practices of your industry, that is how we will innovate," he said. "Question our leaders, that is how we will progress. Question the structure of the world around you, that is how we will improve. But most importantly, question yourselves, because that is how we will grow."

In his own closing address to the graduates, President Bravman not only echoed the advice offered by Ferrer and Zakaria, but also returned to the motto the class devised for itself four years earlier: "More than ever, successful navigation of the world requires conscientious examination of our differences," Bravman said. "Remember to seek out, and strive to understand, an array of perspectives especially those that challenge your own."

Here is the original post:
Fareed Zakaria Offers Defense of Free Speech and the Liberal Arts ... - Bucknell University