We have much more freedom of expression than ever. So does ISIS.

Despite political correctness, are we enjoying more or less freedom of expression today than we were, say, 50 years ago?

As per my last blog, there is an important distinction between the Charter of Rights and Freedoms fundamental freedom of expression and the social context in which your particular expression occurs. The Charter guarantees that the government will not act against you for free expression (subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society). Not only this, but the government will actually intervene to protect you from those who might try to silence you. That’s the Charter. God bless Canada. Or Yahweh, Jehova, Elohim, Imaginary Friend, Allah, Ishvara, Buddha, or Captain James T. Kirk bless Canada. Whoever you look to for guidance. W.W.J.D. – What would Jim do? I am trying to be inclusive. 

The Charter does not protect you from, say, the NHL requiring its players and coaches to eschew racist expression. If you are in the NHL, you can think all the racist thoughts you want (another Charter right) but you can’t express them and stay part of the league. The state will guarantee your right to be a racist. You are free to express your racism and be guaranteed a place at the Canadian table. The NHL, though, can kick you out of the league – go exercise your freedom to racism somewhere else, thank you very much.

Enough review. 

Are we enjoying more or less freedom of expression than we were in the free-love 1960s?

More. Way more. Like, internet-funny-cat-meme more than ever before. 

Freedom of expression is not just an academic exercise. It’s one thing to be free to express oneself; it’s another thing to actually have an audience. To be heard. To have an influence. Does Einstein falling in the forest make a noise if nobody is there to hear him?

By 1500 all the printers in Europe had produced 20 million publications which were distributed to a very small segment of the population who could actually read. “Ouch Charlie” – an endearing YouTube video featuring the commentary of a little boy while his infant brother bites his finger – has amassed a staggering 800 million views. One father and two little boys reached an audience of almost one billion.

This is not the philosophical side of freedom of expression. This is the real, practical side. We have more or less the same legal freedoms we had in 1965 but now we have the practical freedom to spread our ideas to one another instantly and in massive numbers. The trick is to get traction and have your ideas be picked up by others. Or, at least to get others to watch the video of your cat falling off the kitchen counter into the water bowl. 

Information and opinion are free and easy. Your thoughts and opinions are immediately distributed to a worldwide audience. Most of it gets utterly ignored but not all of it. The free exchange of ideas is changing the world. ISIS, for instance, is able to radicalize young Canadians specifically because their particular expression is available to a broad audience. Some listen. 

I prefer to think that philosophical freedom of expression coupled with that practical distribution of that expression will, ultimately, make the world a safer, better, happier place. Just as a tiny group of young Canadians are seeing ISIS propaganda, so does the world see Je Suis Charlie marches in Paris. Just as the people of free, Western democracies can be radicalized, so can the rest of the world be freedomized. This is why dismissing the Paris march as slactivism is disingenuous. Slactivism matters because it is a demonstration of freedom of expression and, more broadly, the joys of freedom and security. 

Ideas matter. Changing minds takes time. Generations, in fact. But minds are changing. In huge parts of the world the concept of freedom was not even heard of as recently as 100 year ago. Don’t conclude that ISIS is winning the war of ideas. While a tiny few in Western democracies are affected by ISIS’ violent and hateful message, millions upon millions in Syria, Iraq, Congo, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China, Canada, and America are affected by the reverse school of thought – Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

Ultimately, good ideas flourish and bad ideas perish.