"It's a Free Country, Last I Checked"

I can't help feeling we're at a huge crux for democracy. It's not the soldiers in the Middle East “defending our freedom”, or industries that are seducing and enslaving populations in need and debt. No it's more fundamental: do people even have a clue what freedom means anymore? We have an increasing number of blowhards that make comments that get picked up and broadcast over a huge audience, and then get lambasted by the very media world that they are a part of. It's oddly hypocritical – stories are only publicised because they're sensational, and the sensationalism is carried by everyone telling the story, who is each then complicit in the original offence. And top to bottom, front to back, everyone is using the same descriptor: free speech.

Howard Stern has played this game perhaps most publicly and most successfully. Recently, many others haven't been so lucky. The stories gain this ungainly momentum, and take on a life of their own, and the offence that is so scandalising becomes blown entirely out of proportion. Suddenly in this internet era when words in many cases are all we have to lean on, and private and public spheres are blurred, those words have a hell of a lot of importance. That's part of it, but wait there's more.

There is an understated but direct culture clash that we've been living with for decades. It's been in the wings, the oft-quoted “live and let live tolerance” thing. Segregated subcultures have been allowed their own ways and biases, in fact those have even been encouraged. And now suddenly the broader culture is saying that's not enough. There is a recognition that we should be living in unity with respect and forgiveness (dare I say, love?) for each other, and that's the fulcrum on which this whole thing pivots. Is the world really ready to buy fully into what that means, and make room for it? That's a whole lot of opt in, and the ramifications are extreme and I believe, in this reactionary period, not well thought out.

Of course, this could be just a bunch of whiners complaining that they don't have enough freedom, because other people's freedoms are impinging on their own. (When everyone is free, no-one is?) I'm interested to see what becomes of it, and what changes are effected. (If any.) Either this goes away (again) with some sincere-sounding apologies and crocodile tears, or we make some unwieldy rules 'n' regulations, or it becomes internalised change at the gut level. As for you and your house, that's your call.

Have you ever heard “if we offend you, don't watch”? That's the sort of defence that's been around for decades – the "if you're offended, it's your fault" mentality. It's been twisted to defend everything from edgy comedy to pornography. If we're serious about this unity gig, and don't want to be hypocrites, that mentality dies here. There's no room for it in community. Or if we believe in free speech like we claim to, then we take a few knocks every once in a while by people who can get away with abusing trust. Sometimes you need to hear a lot of crap before you hear one true thing. And of course, this is all juxtaposed with the real need that people have to be offended, whether they know it or not. So now what?

Well, all I know is this: I can ask prophetic questions, but I'm no prophet.