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Freedom
of speech or expression is the freedom to express
thoughts or ideas. Thus it is a consequence of freedom
of thought and ideological freedom, which result from
freedom to think and freedom to have one's own ideas.
In
human evolution, the political demand and struggle
for freedom of thought--for often one is not even
allowed to think--and for ideological freedom precedes
the struggle for freedom of speech. Freedom of thought
is not possible if there isn't a thought to be expressed.
And there is no ideological freedom either without
such previous thought. There is no ideological freedom
if there isn't a body of ideas about the world and
things. But freedom means being able to choose among
different things. There is no freedom when one cannot
opt for a thought that is different from the official
thought, different from official doctrine.
The
problem stems from the fact that loyalty to the thought
takes people to action. Thus dissidence of thought
moves people to disobedience and rebellion. That's
a problem, of course, for those in power. Undoubtedly,
ideological imposition of thought has been throughout
history the basis for the maintenance of the "status
quo".
Dissident
thought is repressed and individuals are thus protected
against themselves, that is, against the dangerous
temptation of engaging in independent thought. The
idea is to get people used to the false security that
derives from not thinking, from living in a society
with uniform thoughts, while it is left up to others
to do the thinking for them, what today is done by
television, and the media in general.
But
history shows that regimes fall and that thoughts
and ideas end up being triumphant. Hemlock wasn't
successful against Socrates' philosophy, nor was the
state successful against Servet's discoveries, nor
prison against Quevedo's satire, nor execution against
the work of Garcia Lorca, nor did his being ignored
obliterate Bergamin's thought.
And
today, right here and now, there are people who refuse
to behave like meek sheep of the herd. People who
have their own ideas about reason and about justice.
People who constantly exercise their human right to
become themselves and to continue being themselves
despite the personality manipulating techniques of
mass psychology employed by the structures of power.
Freedom
of speech and freedom of thought are not something
that is ever finished. Freedom of expression and all
other freedoms are but one freedom: FREEDOM with capital
letters, subversive flag of times past, as well as
of today and tomorrow, a utopia towards which we are
compelled to continue striving for. Freedom of speech
can only be conceived as having a critical character
and an alternative content, the goals of which are
to change society.
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