Free Speech Is Under Assault

"I'm from the government.
We're here to help you."

Gallup polls have shown that a majority of Democrats are in favor of restricting free speech, while a majority of Republicans are pro free speech. Yesterday, a John Kerry clip was making the rounds.

At a World Economic Forum event John Kerry recently explained the situation this way:

Social media has made it "really hard" for governments to build consensus.

This statement makes clear that consensus is an imortant value for those who govern, even more important than people or truth.*

Kerry goes on to say that the masses tend to go to a single source for news, which becomes an echo  chamber. The assumption is that people are ignorant, though not all. He's calling out those who are suckered into believing disinformation.\

"People self-select where they go for news," Kerry said. "And you get into a vicious cycle."

So, does Kerry want the government to select for them? 

Who then should be the arbiter of truth? For John Kerry the problem is not disinformation. It is the U.S. Constitution with its Bill of Rights. For Kerry, and others of his ilk, the public has to be protected.

"Our first amendment stands as a major block to hammer disinformation out of existence," Kerry asserts.

Again, who decides what is truth? And why is consensus so important? For several years the media presented a one-sided picture of the Vietnam War. The networks shared the scripted Pentagon interpretations of that war. A few brave journalists chose to actually go see what was happening, and it was disturbing. Yes, the government won its consensus, disseminated by mainstream media--newspapers and networks--but what was the reality? It was not what we were being told, and over time the ugly truth seeped out and into the public conscience. I wonder, however, how much shorter that war might have been had more contrarian voices heard.

"I think democracies are very challenged right now and have not proven they can move fast enough."—John Kerry

Does Me. Kerry want King George again? Or a totalitarian? Dictators can move very fast. Ask the Red Queen and you'll see. "Off with their heads!"

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Michael Shellenberg's response to John Kerry: "Most of us enjoy more free speech than ever thanks to X. That’s why the elites are desperate to censor it, ban it, or take it over. Every day another totalitarian makes his intentions known. We must defend a free X. Our lives depend on it."

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Reminder: Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says free speech is a weapon of war, and censorship is necessary to protect free speech.

What do you think of that?

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Ben Franklin had other ideas: "Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins."

Related Links

Censorship Is a Tool of Those in Power

The Westminster Declaration: An Important Statement for Our Times

Censorship as First Step to Totalitarianism

*When I speak of consensus, I am referring to forced consensus 

Public Speaking

“If I had a choice between getting a round of applause by delivering a twenty-six second applause line and getting a round of boos by telling the truth, I’d rather get the round of applause.” ~ former Senator Bob Kerrey, on why campaign finance reform won't work.

The Bob Kerrey quote, extracted from Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan, was used to illustrate why campaign finance reform favors small organized groups rather than the masses. But it also says something to me about politicians. They are people like you and me. They prefer being liked than being disliked. They prefer applause and hurrahs to brickbats and broken jaws. (Yes, I went for the cheap rhyme there.)

My thought upon reading this quote (one of many other extracts from this book I'd recommended the other day) is that politicians must get a rush when they encounter large, passionate crowds. And politicians who are good at working a crowd help their audiences enjoy it even more, stoking passions and making moments memorable.

Newsweek magazine, after the Kerry/Bush election, did a marvelously detailed and lengthy overview of the campaigns of John Kerry and Bush in 2004. Their reporters were embedded inside the campaigns, having agreed to share none of their inside observations till after the elections, much like the reporters embedded within the armed forces in their assault upon Baghdad.

One of the most memorable scenes in the Newsweek report was a description of Kerry at one of his last whistle stops in Iowa, the weekend before the election. He'd landed at an airport, the mobs were enormous that had come out to greet him. His children were there, including a daughter who lived in California and was (if my memory is correct) somehow professionally involved in some facet of public speaking herself.

This daughter observed her dad's power to mesmerize the crowd, and then while the energy level was peaking, while they were at a crescendo of emotion, in this particular instance he kept talking and talking and talking, and despite her having chastened him about this before he pretty much violated that basic maxim of public speaking, "It is better to talk ten minutes too short than two minutes too long." Kerry spoke for an hour when twenty minutes would have been more than sufficient. He essentially left them flattened because at that point they did not want to hear all this political jabber. They just wanted to get jazzed.

Whether you're an entertainer, a public speaker or a customer service professional, one of your goals is to keep them coming back for more. You don't have to say everything you know every time you have an audience. Like a daily blog, you just want to make sure there's something of takeaway value that will keep them coming back.

Rather than bore you with everything else I know about public speaking, just go out there and have a great day.

A SOFT FAREWELL
On another topic tangentially related to public speaking, tonight the New York Yankees will be playing their last game at Yankee Stadium. The season is winding to an end and the Yanks will begin next season at a 1.3 billion dollar ballpark across the street. Completed in 1923, a lot of history was made there. One of my most memorable personal moments was seeing the great Mickey Mantle knock in two runs with a one-hop-into-the-stands double to left on Bat Day in the mid-sixties.

Known as The House That Ruth Built, one of the greatest public speeches in baseball was given there by Lou Gehrig, the former Iron Man of baseball, the man for whom A.L.S. was named. Here's the opening line of that great speech followed by a YouTube link to that incredible moment. It was an awesome moment, preserved for us by the miracle of modern technology.

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." ~ Lou Gehrig, July 4, 1939