Freedom of Speech
A million dollar survey found that almost one third of high school students, upon hearing the actual text of the First Amendment, thinks it goes "too far." Perhaps, they should consider the following:
In John M. Barry's "The Great Influenza", we learn that even before entering World War I, Woodrow Wilson warned Congress: "There are citizens of the United States...who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the arteries of our national life...Such creators of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out."
In 1918, our government controlled freedom of speech in ways, not known in America before or since. Before television or radio, most political discourse went through the mail. The Postmaster General was given the power to refuse to deliver any periodical he deemed unpatriotic or critical of the administration. The post office stopped delivery of virtually all publications and any foreign language publications that hinted at less than enthusiastic support of the war.
During, Wilson's administration the Sedition Act made it punishable by twenty years in jail to utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the government of the United States. One could go to jail for cursing the government, or criticizing it even if what one said was true.
A journalist close to Wilson argued: "Truth and falsehood are arbitrary terms...There is nothing in experience to tell us one is always preferable to the other...The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false."
"Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust..." -- Michael Parenti's "Superpatriotism"
There is nothing like a war to reduce citizens to mindless conformity, ready to play follow the leader.
In John M. Barry's "The Great Influenza", we learn that even before entering World War I, Woodrow Wilson warned Congress: "There are citizens of the United States...who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the arteries of our national life...Such creators of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out."
In 1918, our government controlled freedom of speech in ways, not known in America before or since. Before television or radio, most political discourse went through the mail. The Postmaster General was given the power to refuse to deliver any periodical he deemed unpatriotic or critical of the administration. The post office stopped delivery of virtually all publications and any foreign language publications that hinted at less than enthusiastic support of the war.
During, Wilson's administration the Sedition Act made it punishable by twenty years in jail to utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the government of the United States. One could go to jail for cursing the government, or criticizing it even if what one said was true.
A journalist close to Wilson argued: "Truth and falsehood are arbitrary terms...There is nothing in experience to tell us one is always preferable to the other...The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false."
"Democracy is not about trust; it is about distrust..." -- Michael Parenti's "Superpatriotism"
There is nothing like a war to reduce citizens to mindless conformity, ready to play follow the leader.
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