The big news story in this week's news cycle is that NBA franchise owner Donald Sterling said some really stupid, racist things. Once again, in this world of no privacy, people in position get caught out saying stupid things, and now likely he will have to sell his franchise to somebody more 'enlightened'. I suppose that this is a modern form of social darwinism at work...keep doing something stupid and eventually you will get caught, shamed, shunned, and vilified. A bit of me smiles that it's another rich and clueless guy who is getting brought down in the court of public opinion. Some people don't need their own Jerry Springer to have their stupidity exposed.
When things like this happen (and, I suppose, they happen to the point now of something we might expect on a regular basis, and how can you really be outraged when you know it is coming from somewhere, somehow, even if you don't know from, um, somewho), inevitably the lament of 'free speech is dead' comes from at least some corner, though I haven't really seen it yet in this case since what he said is morally indefensible. But what do they think 'free speech' is. To quote the first amendment, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for aredress of grievances. In fact, there really is no free speech...it's just that the congress can't outlaw unpopular speech.
But the rest of us? Yeah, we get to slam on people who say terrible things. Here's the analogy I thought of today. Speech is like using a credit card: you can buy what you want now and it doesn't cost you a thing today, but tomorrow, if you aren't careful in how you can use it, you'll really end up in the hole.
Freedom in speech does not mean that there are no consequences, especially when it comes in a society in which we are increasingly interconnected. Somebody can say what they want when nobody is around, and rarely will it ever catch up with them. But in a civil society of 300 million people, in which you never really have it where nobody is around, that no longer happens. Too many phones and recorders are out there, taping everything that we do. Even a blog like this, something mostly anonymous (by design) where I get to ramble on about what interests me (and likely nobody else) at the moment, could eventually be traced back to me. I've said too many stupid things in my own life to ever be considered for public office, not to mention the stupid things I would say on a campaign trail (I have to think that I'd regularly be lampooned on the Daily Show). That's life, though. I'm willing to live with consequences for what I do and say...but I'd be better off just staying as anonymous as I can if I can't stay silent.
