Stupid or Free
Let's start with free speech.
In case you hadn't noticed, we don't have it.
We have "pretty free speech, most of the time, with obvious exceptions". You are not free to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, because it might cause the audience to panic, mob the exits and trample each other. You are not free to stand on a soap box and urge citizens to rise up and take arms against their government, because the government makes the rules. (Duh!) You are not free to advocate violence against other citizens either, because there might be borderline sociopaths listening and this encouragement might be all they need to tip them over the edge. You are not really free to espouse theories that are insulting to others' beliefs; yes, you can say it and not go to jail, but you will not be allowed to speak in public and you will lose your job, because your employer doesn't need that kind of trouble.
In each case, the rationale behind the prohibition is that your audience is too stupid to ignore your ranting or examine the facts and form their own educated opinions. We assume all audiences are potential mobs of idiots.
Well, maybe they are. But why? They weren't always. Maybe we are just having a bad hair (and the stuff inside it) century. Or maybe people act out your expectations of them. We think our fellow citizens are idiots. We think we are idiots half the time, because our governments certainly demonstrate on a daily basis that they think we are all idiots, and we are loyal citizens.
To counter this belief, you need only look at a two-lane highway from the perspective of a hypothetical citizen of a might-have-been country where the Interstate Highway Act was never passed and rail transportation was developed instead of all the pavement covering our most fertile soil: an endless string of two-ton steel hulks whizzing past each other in opposite directions, a few feet apart, piloted by the selfsame "idiot" citizens we think are too incompetent to walk down stairs without a crash helmet. (It's coming, you just wait!). There's something wrong with this picture. They almost never crash into each other! If we were really as clueless as we picture ourselves, none of us would make it more than a few blocks from home before piling up our car on a telephone pole. In truth, Ralph Nader notwithstanding, we are pretty good at negotiating extremely dangerous paths in our daily lives, as long as we "just do it".
So why is it difficult to imagine a movie audience taking into account the fact that they don't smell smoke or see flames, moving competently toward the exits, and remembering the face of the jerk who yelled, "Fire!" in the theater? The perpetrator of such a hoax would, of course, be liable for the cost of all the tickets for the performance; that just makes sense, is fair and would provide as effective a disincentive as jail time.
Why is it impossible to imagine a crowd of onlookers listening to some rabble rouser on a soapbox, weighing his or her arguments, and walking away calmly with their own informed opinions intact? Why do we believe that the first time a Holocaust denier is allowed to speak, everyone in the audience will say, "Gosh, I didn't know that!" and go pass along the speaker's theory as fact to all their friends?
Perhaps because television programming (especially advertising) is so blatantly geared to idiotic viewers. Perhaps because video games appeal to "realistic" blood lust and adrenaline instead of problem solving skills and subtlety. Perhaps because our schools teach "self-esteem" instead of providing realistic evaluations of performance. Perhaps because we want success without stress, wealth without work, toys without knowledge of function or repair. These things are all tied together in complex and confusing collective behaviors, but one thing is certain:
Now I would like to make a distinction between the derogatory terms "stupid" or "idiotic", with which I denote failure to use one's intelligence, and actual mental disabilities, which we ought to (and usually do) afford some latitude. Mentally challenged people are (and should be) encouraged to function normally in society and discover what they have to offer, which is often remarkable. When I say "stupid" I really mean "lazy and irresponsible". But "stupid" is shorter, and I'm too lazy to type out those big words.
If we showed the same high expectations for all citizens that we do for the mentally challenged, it would make sense to declare all speech to be free, and count on the judgement of an educated citizenry to discard the ridiculous and elevate the sensible. Anyone could say whatever they liked, with the sole caveat that they are responsible for the consequences of intentional lies.
Unfortunately, I don't see a path leading to that outcome without a catastrophic phase transformation along the way. Please, someone, prove me wrong!
