"I very well know that in many minds 'criticism' has today become an ugly word It has become almost lese majeste. It conjures up pictures of insidious radicals hacking away at the very foundations of the American way of life. It suggests nonconformity and nonconformity suggests disloyalty and disloyalty suggests treason, and before we know where we are, this process has all but identified the critic with the saboteur and turned political criticism into an un-American activity instead of democracy's greatest safeguard."
Words as important today -- if not more important --than when they were written.
Don't Stevenson's words remind you that in a constitutional democracy, plus ca change, and of this piece by S.R. Allen written not long after September 11?:
Since the brutal atrocities of Sept. 11, America has become a very different place. You can see it on TV. You can feel it in the streets. Underthe threat of renewed attacks from our faceless enemies, Americans from coast to coast are on edge. Many people are depressed, grieving or angry--all feelings that, given these dark times, are perfectly understandable.
Unfortunately, feelings which are less justifiable have led to the suppression of free speech across the country. Every American, of course, wants terrorism neutralized. Not everyone, though, agrees on the best way to do so. In this high-tension environment, most people seem unwilling to openly debate the wisdom of Bush Administration decisions, and reporters in general seem reluctant to demand information from the government which would make such debates useful. Across the nation, journalists and commentators who have voiced criticisms of official
action since Sept. 11 have been harassed and threatened. In some cases, they have even been fired.
The purpose of this editorial is not to argue that criticisms of any particular governmental action are correct. I merely want to affirm the right of individuals to state those criticisms. I also want to point out that such criticisms, far from being unpatriotic, are actually a sacred expression of the deepest American values.
In times of crisis, Americans have traditionally moved to repress the basic civil liberties of their fellow citizens. This was true when anti-war protesters were imprisoned during World War I. It was also true when Japanese-Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
Sadly, such behavior threatens the core principles--and, ultimately, the very existence--of this great nation. In the fight against terrorism, we are not only fighting to avenge the victims of Sept. 11. Our long term fight is to protect our democratic principles against those who seek to
extinguish our openness and freedom.
Free citizens of a free country cannot define freedom as blind, uncritical acceptance of every action their representatives chose to take in any given situation. Such sycophantic acceptance of the will of a ruler may have been acceptable in Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia and Mao's
China, but it is not acceptable, and should not be tolerated, in a free society.
Many critiques of our government, of course, are inaccurate and unsubstantiated. Some of the protesters, I've noticed, are adopting the same kind of self-righteous, absolutist mindset that has motivated many right-wing commentators to spend the last few weeks promoting a New McCarthyism. Whether originating from the left or right, absolutist ideologies, and the totalitarian tendencies which go along with them, are sickening betrayals of the very qualities which make this country great.
Whenever controversial ideas are presented, they should be openly debated in public. This way, if they are inaccurate, they can quickly be dispelled, and our society as a whole will be provided with a clearer vision of the threat we're all facing. Criticism of official action should never,
under any circumstances, be suppressed.
The Founding Fathers placed such a high value on free speech because they recognized that it is the essential prerequisite for a free society.
When motivated by conscience and a desire for justice, the ability to voice criticisms of official action is not merely a right--it's a duty. The constitutional framework of our nation has been largely successful in preventing domestic tyranny not because our leaders are wise, but
because our Constitution encourages us to voice criticisms whenever we feel our representatives have acted unjustly or unwisely. Free speech is, quite simply, the only effective way to prevent monumental abuses of power in a free society.
Ironically, those who make the biggest show of professing their love of freedom are often the first ones to show contempt for the basic rights that protect freedom. There are intolerant and anti-American forces operating right here in the United States of America, and they're not all
Islamic. In this "war," we should seek to discourage not only Islamic fundamentalism but all fundamentalism in whatever form it takes. There are many people from many different ideological backgrounds who seek to kill the dream of cultural pluralism, the idea that different people holding different beliefs can coexist together in a peaceful manner, voicing their differences through the organs of civil society without resource to
bullets and bombs. We abandon this dream at our peril.
True patriotism requires a full acceptance and appreciation of the ideological, religious and cultural differences that make our nation great and prevent it from becoming the kind of boring, homogenous, totalitarian society which Hitler, Stalin and Mao envisioned. True patriotism requires
a willingness to allow other people to contribute their ideas to the public debate, regardless of whether their opinions mirror the majority's. True patriotism requires a desire to listen as well as speak so that we can all puzzle out a solution to this horrible crisis together.
Thomas Jefferson once said that freedom of speech "cannot be limited without being lost." Some of the enemies of freedom are hiding in caves in Afghanistan. Others are babbling out intolerant, narrow-minded perversions of what it means to be a "good American" in newspapers
and on the radio and television. They have the right to express their opinions. But by encouraging an end to free and open debate, they are only calling their own love of liberty into question. |
