Free Speech II

 

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.

Peter Seeger’s song was about foolishly following a Captain into the Big Muddy when the Captain did not have the correct information. This action cost the Captain his life.  The Sergeant and the men of his platoon would have also paid that price if they had listened to, obeyed, the Captain. And that is what free speech is all about. No one is absolutely certain unless that person is also the absolute. Everybody , not just the  absolute,  is free to state their opinion, but it is just that,  their opinion, not the facts. Free Speech is your opinion. Acting if that opinion is the Truth is what has consequences, not the opinion itself. You should follow the truth, not obey an opinion.

You are free to give your opinion, but your opinion is NOT an order, nor should it be. If you follow that opinion, act as if it were the truth, then you will share in the consequences of that opinion if it is false. I will defend your right to free speech, opinion, to the death. But you, and everyone that accepts your opinion as the truth, has to accept the consequences of that speech. It is the action, not the speech, that has consequences. Free speech? Yes. Actions without consequences? No.