Ayn Rand and the Charlie Hebdo Connection
My niece’s class discussion on free speech concluded that free speech does not mean limitless power to hurt. It’s understandable for school or college kids to come to such conclusions. After all, that sounds so reasonable. But, and this is a huge ‘but’, in the real world, the immediate question we have to consider is who decides that limit? Can there even be a single rule to demarcate that line? And if not, would we have different limits for different groups/topics? Would such differences in limits then trigger accusations of bias, caring about some and ignoring the rest? If those accusations get ignored for too long, would it trigger a backlash later? Is the implementation so impractical that we will just tie ourselves in knots? If it was me, I would have set up Round 2 of that class discussion with these questions! At least kids can be excused on their stance because of their idealism, inexperience and lack of practical world scenarios. But adults, what’s their excuse? Lik