Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Freedom of speech

Yours truly is a big fan of the freedom of speech, it is one of those basic human rights that is so fundamental that it should never be tinkered with. There is perhaps a case for stopping people saying anything that would incite hatred or violence but even then there is a bit of me that is screaming away at the back of my mind that we are heading down a slippery slope. And the reason I love freedom of speech is that even though it comes with the inevitable consequence that in order to have that freedom one must be prepared to be offended by what others have to say, it is still, nonetheless, a self policing system.

Let me explain with an example from this very week.

When one has the freedom of speech one essentially has the right to act like a complete cock, and when one has the right to act like a complete cock one has to accept the consequence that others may observe your behaviour and respond by shouting, "Oi, cock, stop acting like a cock, you big cock." Which is a pretty humiliating thing to happen and which no one enjoys. (Except for certain special people. There are people in Soho who look after them and their needs.) The result is normally that said perpetrator of cock like behavious ceases to act like a cock and balance is restored to this world.

This week Phone4U decided to act like a bunch of complete cocks. A brief perusal of the BBC website indicates that many people decided to point this out and tell them about their cock like behaviour and ask them to stop it. (There are suggestions in this story that Messrs Sue Grabbit and Ruin may have been involved but I am inclined to disbelieve it, I know that the scouts have better things to spend their cash on that this). The result is that Phones 4 U, not being in that group of special people have decided to stop being cocks.

So all is well in this world again.

Good night.

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