“So, now you give the Devil the
benefit of law!” This is a quote from the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, when Sir Thomas More, played by Paul
Scofield, refuses to have one of the antagonists of the story arrested on the
grounds of being evil. Scofield says that he gives the devil the benefit of the
law so that the same might protect him.
How often
do U.S. citizens think about the possibility of silencing speech in the name of
morality and diminishing psychological attacks to other humans? It can be
guaranteed that since humans began to live and survive together, there has also
been unpopular opinions or even opinions that violated the conception of
another human’s rights. This type of speech and opinion remains rampant in our
society with racism, religious
bigotry, homophobia, and many other types of stereotypes and fear. The
Westboro church, renowned for they’re continued hate speech, received threats
of cyber
assaults by various groups including “Anonymous.”
Why is the Westboro church’s speech
of hate and pain continually protected by the first amendment? And why are
assaults on such hated speech not protected? The simple truth is that the
government still has no right to punish thoughts. Thoughts are the essence of
what make humans more than the common creature of the Earth; they inspire love,
hate, evil, and good. While thoughts may be the roots of evil deeds, they are
also the birth of good deeds as well. To deny the expression of one and not the
other is to make mutilates a human’s ability to not only make a mistake, but
more importantly to learn from that mistake. The beauty of human existence is
that we are not proscribed for one particular job or existence, rather we are
not bound by our physical or mental predispositions, but rather our willingness
to engage and redefine ourselves constantly, so that we might become the
creatures of great and noble deeds.
Not only
does this right protect those who consider themselves to be good and righteous,
but this also allows us to see when there are problems, to try and convince
others that they are wrong or to allow for ourselves to be convinced we are
wrong. No one can fix a problem that cannot be understood. And understanding
comes at the cost of experience and exposure.
The fact that the government will never have the ability to punish our thoughts is so important and essential to our freedom to be individuals in this world. I believe that if the government had the ability to punish our thoughts, humans would become mindless beings that only robotically perform functions of daily life. I completely agree with you in that while it is hard to accept that such hateful and harmful ideas and speech can exist, it is just as important as speech that inspires good. Having a spectrum of good and evil that has two very opposing ends allows people to determine their own place within the scale. People can look at others, decipher their own opinion, and make themselves individuals. Without the existence of challenging opinions, every single person would be stagnant. With your reference to the Westboro, the beauty of their existence is that it allows for the development of individuals who fight for the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Without evil, there would be no need for good to be so strived for and that is why I agree it needs to be protected to a certain extent. As you were saying, people also make mistakes and allowing people to experience mistakes helps a society to grow.
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