Pay no attention to the cameras monitoring this head.
There's so much to say about this week's thought experiment, but I haven't given myself the freedom to express it here. Mondays are just for presenting the problem, so here it is:
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Announcement on the official state news.
"Comrades! Our People's Republic is a triumphant beacon of freedom in the world, in which the workers have been liberated from their slavery! In order to defeat the bourgeois foe, it has been necessary up until now to outlaw talk which may stir up dissent and reverse our triumphant revolution. It has never been our intention to limit free speech forever, and recently more people have been asking whether the time will soon be right to make the next great leap forward.
"Comrades, our dear leader has decreed that now is indeed the time! The bourgeois has been defeated and humbled, and now our dear leader offers us the gift of free speech!
"From Monday, if anyone wishes to say anything at all, even wicked lies critical of the People's Republic, he or she may do so, simply by visiting one of the new free speech booths being erected around the country! You may enter these soundproof constructions, one at a time, and say whatever you wish! No more can people complain that there is no free speech!
"Seditious lies uttered outside the booths will continue to be punished in the usual ways. Long live the revolution and our beloved leader!"
Source: Free Speech by Alan Haworth, 1998.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 97.
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You may speak your mind on this of course, but please do so in the (comment) box below. I'll be back on Friday with my own uncensored thoughts on freedom of speech.
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Announcement on the official state news.
"Comrades! Our People's Republic is a triumphant beacon of freedom in the world, in which the workers have been liberated from their slavery! In order to defeat the bourgeois foe, it has been necessary up until now to outlaw talk which may stir up dissent and reverse our triumphant revolution. It has never been our intention to limit free speech forever, and recently more people have been asking whether the time will soon be right to make the next great leap forward.
"Comrades, our dear leader has decreed that now is indeed the time! The bourgeois has been defeated and humbled, and now our dear leader offers us the gift of free speech!
"From Monday, if anyone wishes to say anything at all, even wicked lies critical of the People's Republic, he or she may do so, simply by visiting one of the new free speech booths being erected around the country! You may enter these soundproof constructions, one at a time, and say whatever you wish! No more can people complain that there is no free speech!
"Seditious lies uttered outside the booths will continue to be punished in the usual ways. Long live the revolution and our beloved leader!"
Source: Free Speech by Alan Haworth, 1998.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 97.
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You may speak your mind on this of course, but please do so in the (comment) box below. I'll be back on Friday with my own uncensored thoughts on freedom of speech.
