In 1582 the Dutchman Dirck Coornhert insisted that it was “tyrannical to ….
In the ninth century CE, the irreverent freethinker Ibn al-Rawandī used the fertile intellectual climate of the ‘Abbāsid Caliphate to question prophecy and holy books. The Athenian statesman Pericles extolled the democratic values of open debate and tolerance of social dissent in 431 BCE. In truth, the roots of free speech are ancient, deep, and sprawling. Moreover, the history of free speech demonstrates vividly that the ecosystem needed for this value to thrive and flourish in practice is far more complex than merely being a question of protecting the citizen against the state. The Ancient Roots of Free Speechīut the history of free speech shows that the origins of this freedom stretch much further back than the First Amendment or even the Enlightenment. This was, indeed, a hugely important development, and the First Amendment has, with time, served as a crucial bulwark of American liberty, democracy, and - much belatedly - equality.
Ratified in 1791, the First Amendment offers only protection against government restrictions of free speech. In addition to ideological partisanship, the disagreement about the state of free speech reveals that many Americans have a reductionist and parochial understanding of this freedom, which they view as being identical to the First Amendment. The history of free speech suggests that the Times has a point and that its critics view this freedom through a too-narrow lens. This piece is available in audio format on our podcast, “ Heterodox Out Loud: the best of the HxA blog.” Narration begins at 1:30.ĭoes America have a free speech problem? Yes, according to the New York Times’ editorial board no, according to furious critics in the media and on Twitter.
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