Life for Free Speech
The day after Trump came into office, many people all came together to protest against him. All came together to speak what’s on their mind and to stand up for what they believe in. Basically everyone has their own right to free speech to speak against the one that they do not have respect for.
The Greeks would call it, parrhesia, meaning free speech translated to English. The people who use free speech are call the parrhesiates. In the reading, “Fearless Speech,” by Michel Foucault, he believes that there is more to free speech than what it is. Yes free speech means to speak your own mind and the truth, but in order for people to believe you need to have some kind of moral quality. Not only that, as a parrhesiates, speaking the truth against someone means that you are putting yourself in danger. Foucault provides us an example where a philosopher dares to speak his mind against a sovereign or a tyrant about how the way they are ruling is “disturbing and unpleasant.” This saying puts the philosopher’s life in danger because if the tyrant hates what they hear, they will do anything to end the philosopher’s life. Just like how in the protest and whoever are against Trump believes that his beliefs are “disturbing and unpleasant” to many. Since I’m mentioning endangering lives, many African Americans during the Civil Rights Movements had lost their lives fighting for freedom and equality. They spoke their minds, and lost their lives.
No one is forced to to speak aloud, but it is our “duty” to speak against and criticize the one who will harm our beliefs. If we don’t stand up for our own beliefs, who will? Using our free speech, we need to be heard, we need to fight.
I’ve noticed that during the protest, even celebrities decided to come out and support everyone and their own beliefs against Trump. It’s amazing how such a movement got celebrities to come out for support. Celebrities can further help us spread the word out faster because they have easier access to the media. The media obviously want to record the opinion of a celebrity just because they are famous. Like how during the Civil Rights Movement, they had the historical, Martin Luther King to speak out for the ones who weren’t able to speak out without being punished severely. I wish I was someone famous so that I would have some kind of power to speak out that would create some attention towards a specific situation. I mean lets be honest here, everyone wants to be famous.
On the other hand, we really don’t need celebrities to help us normal people create attention. What we need is as many supporters out on the streets speaking their minds as we can to create attention. We need to use our right to free speech to speak of the controversial topics and stand for what we believe in. Obviously the Women’s Protest created major attention across the world because hundreds of thousands of people participated and joined in and marched the streets across the United States.
These days, free speech isn’t really that free. There are limits to what we can say publicly. An extreme example would be if someone were to say, “I’m going to blow up the mall full of people,” then that person will immediately be arrested because they could potentially hurt a bunch of people if they actually follow through with it. This person would definitely not be considered a parrhesiates because they aren’t speaking to fight for their beliefs, they are simply threatening to hurt people. Even during protests, people are being arrested for saying things that doesn’t hurt others. If that person don’t like hearing whatever is said, they will do everything in their power to get that protester arrested. They don’t want negative words said about them to spread around and make them look bad.
Don’t be afraid to speak out and let people know what you believe in. Don’t let anyone discourage you to speak out a different opinion of someone else’s. No one will judge you for speaking your mind, but some might argue against you, however that’s okay because that’s a part of free speech. No matter what, we shouldn’t be silent and let the disrespectful individuals do whatever they want. Yes I’m talking about Trump. So what if we’re being sore losers? We are speaking for us, we are shouting for our beliefs, we are against a terrible President. As an individual, I’m honestly afraid of what is going to happen in the future for America. So hopeful our fighting words will help better our chance for a not terrible future.
Keep fighting, keep shouting, and keep believing in yourself!
