Freedom of Speech Means... Exactly THAT, Freedom of SPEECH!

One of our good friends through the years has always been a bit of a controversial figure. Perhaps that's just part and parcel of being a "Free Speech Activist," which is what he is.

He went from being a Wall Street "dealmaker" living in a Manhattan penthouse, to being a free speech activist in Venice Beach, California, and developing quite a reputation. Then he spent 12 years here in our town, purveying Free Speech on the waterfront, opposite our town hall. Now he has moved on to Portland, Oregon.

He ran into trouble with our local city government, not because they had anything against Free Speech, but because he refused to comply with a city ordnance concerning how large a display any individual can create without a special permit.

The Whole Defensiveness Issue

I can only speak to my personal experience, of course, but there seems to be a very "self-absorbed" element attached to most Free Speech Activism. That is, that somehow Freedom of Speech includes Freedom from Consequences.

Metaphorically speaking, your right to run into a crowded movie theater and shout "FIRE!" for shits and grins may be "protected," but that doesn't come with protection for you from being beaten up by an angry mob who didn't feel that was "funny."

Our friend didn't get in hot water with the city council over Free Speech, he got in trouble for only being willing to do things HIS way.

The Humorless Activist?

Because Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are "fringe dwellers" in our own right, we've known quite a few so-called "activists," along the way.

What they've pretty much all had in common has been the possession of a certain amount of a "God Complex," this inherent belief that they not only have the right to be HEARD, but as soon as people hear their message, the entire world will suddenly "understand" and want to do things their way.

LIFE doesn't work that way.

I fully support their right to do things THEIR way, but when we get to people imposing their way of doing things on others — and maybe even hounding them to do so — that is not your right. In fact, that starts to reek of dictatorship.

What's My Point, Here?

The late comedian George Carlin once observed that "there are six billion people on the planet, there should be six billion religions!"

My point is that even thinking you can get "everyone" to agree with your perspective is pretty much folly. Just look at politics: More than anything, politics is (allegedly) about reaching enough consensus that you can get elected, but in order to reach that consensus, you have to grossly dilute your talking points to such a degree that enough people agree with them.

And so, we move back towards a sort of averaging, in order to get this consensus.

Extremism — that is, insisting on YOUR extreme viewpoint being the norm — only seems able to hold up when applied by force, or through coercion, which means you've suddenly ended up back at the exact opposite point to where you started: Wanting freedom.

Ideals can be wonderful things, but they have a way of not being practically implementable in the real world of human existence, with all our follies.

And so, you can have your VOICE but with it, you also can have the CONSEQUENCE that perhaps nobody will care, or like it, and you're all alone out in left field.

Thanks for reading!

(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)

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Created at 20200218 10:22 PST
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