This day in history: British American author and journalist Christopher Hitchens was born on this day (April 13) in 1949.
Hitchens held complex views on abortion; being ethically opposed to it in most instances, and believing that a fetus was entitled to personhood, while holding ambiguous, changing views on its legality. He supported gun rights and the freedom of expression.
There is a video online of Christopher Hitchens defending free speech, wherein he says some interesting things about the freedom to say anything you want. I have included some samples below:
As John Stuart Mill* said, if all of society were agreed on the truth and beauty and value of one proposition, all except one person it would be most important in fact it would become even more important that that one heretic be heard because we would still benefit from his perhaps outrageous or appalling view.
In more modern times this has been put I think best by a personal heroine of mine Rosa Luxemburg, who said that "the freedom of speech is meaningless unless it means the freedom of the person who thinks differently."
He says of the holocaust denier: "That person doesn't just have a right to speak, that person's right to speak must be given extra protection because what he has to say must have taken him some effort to come up with." He follows this with: "One of the proudest moments of my life, that's to say in the recent past, has been defending the British historian David Irving who is now in prison in Austria for nothing more than the potential of uttering an unwelcomed thought on Austrian soil."
As John Stuart Mill* said, if all of society were agreed on the truth and beauty and value of one proposition, all except one person it would be most important in fact it would become even more important that that one heretic be heard because we would still benefit from his perhaps outrageous or appalling view.
In more modern times this has been put I think best by a personal heroine of mine Rosa Luxemburg, who said that "the freedom of speech is meaningless unless it means the freedom of the person who thinks differently."
He says of the holocaust denier: "That person doesn't just have a right to speak, that person's right to speak must be given extra protection because what he has to say must have taken him some effort to come up with." He follows this with: "One of the proudest moments of my life, that's to say in the recent past, has been defending the British historian David Irving who is now in prison in Austria for nothing more than the potential of uttering an unwelcomed thought on Austrian soil."
Hitchens also had little regard for people who were constantly offended. Hitchens: "When Dr Samuel Johnson had finished his great lexicography, the first real English dictionary, he was visited by various delegations of people to congratulate him, including a delegation of Londons' respectable womanhood, who came to his parlour in Fleet Street and said, 'Dr we want to congratulate you on your decision to exclude all indecent words from your dictionary.' And he said, 'Ladies I congratulate your persistence in looking them up.' ....
If people are determined to be offended, if they will climb up on the ladder, balancing it precariously on their own toilet cistern, to be upset by what they see through their neighbours bathroom window, There's nothing you can do about that." Christopher Hitchens.
See also: Free Speech IS the Speech You Hate - Quotations on Freedom of Expression
*[John Stuart Mill's quote is, “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”]
*[John Stuart Mill's quote is, “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”]
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