Free speech continues to recur as a major theme on this site. And no wonder: it’s under attack. But there is indeed more to it than that:
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Javier Milei
In terms of political logic, I am a mistake, because what I have come to do is in fact stamp out the privileges of politicians.
Javier Milei, as quoted in Maximilan Heath, “Who is Javier Milei, Argentina’s new libertarian president?” Reuters (November 20, 2023).
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A Grimké Day
November 26, 1792, saw the birth of Sarah Moore Grimké, American abolitionist and feminist. She was the elder sister of the equally famed Angelina Emily Grimké Weld.
Ah, Javier Milei:
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
People need to do their own research about everything. You live in a democracy, make up your own mind. One thing my father told me, people in authority lie. Part of the duty of living in a democracy is to maintain a posture of constant skepticism toward any aggregation of power. “Trusting the experts” is not something you do in a democracy. That’s not a feature of democracy or science; it’s a feature of religion and totalitarianism.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., interviewed by VLAD TV, “Robert F Kennedy Jr Names the CIA Agents Who Killed His Uncle JFK (Part 6),” November 11, 2023.
November 25, 1975, Suriname gained independence from the Netherlands.
On the same month and date 17 years later, the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia (officially disjoined as of January 1, 1993). This split has been called “The Velvet Divorce” (following, in style and method, “The Velvet Revolution”).
In 2019, Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen cited the Bible in her Twitter account in order to express her views about sex and Christianity.
“How does the doctrinal foundation of the Church fit in with shame and sin being raised as a matter of pride?” Räsänen asked (in Finnish). Her tweet included a link to an Instagram post displaying Romans 1:24-27, which refers to how males “did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.”
Whether you or I agree with Räsänen’s view that homosexuality is per se immoral is irrelevant. What is not irrelevant is our support for freedom of speech and religious expression: she should surely not be prosecuted for expressing her opinion!
But Finnish police investigated her for the tweet. For good measure, they also included as a possible charge her 2004 publication of a pamphlet questioning same-sex marriage and discussing related issues. She had published the pamphlet before it became illegal in Finland to express such opinions.
Now Räsänen and a Lutheran bishop being prosecuted for similar reasons have been acquitted.
This is a second acquittal. In 2022, the Helsinki District court ruled that it’s not the job of the court “to interpret biblical concepts.” A state prosecutor replied, “You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal.”
Politicians of Finland, don’t continue on this dark path. Revoke all laws that aim to jail people who disagree with you.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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John Milton
Yet he who reigns within himself, and rules
John Milton, Paradise Regain’d (1671), Book II.
Passions, Desires, and Fears, is more a King;
Which every wise and vertuous man attains:
And who attains not, ill aspires to rule
Cities of men, or head-strong Multitudes,
Subject himself to Anarchy within,
Or lawless passions in him which he serves.
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Happy Birthday, Baruch!
November 24th marks the birthdays of philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632) and three influential Americans: ragtime composer Scott Joplin (1868), self-help writer Dale Carnegie (1888), and conservative editor, writer, and television personality William F. Buckley Jr. (1925).
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One by One
Before gratitude became a platitude, it was a way of life, a philosophy.
It’s been expressed in American culture chiefly as an “official day” proclaimed by the State: Thanksgiving. We trace this back to the Pilgrims’ early days in Massachusetts — as I have done here and here — but there is much more to it than the Pilgrim story. On December 18, 1777, during the Revolutionary War, an official Thanksgiving was declared over a victory in battle. But as historian Brion MacLanahan has noted, Virginians experienced not only “the first representative government in North America” but also “hosted the first English thanksgiving.”
In 1619.
Sadly, the “nationalization” of late November’s holiday was not anodyne, as MacLanahan has taken pains to elaborate: it was a way for Yankees to replace Christmas, which Southerners celebrated but Purtian-dominated New England did not.
Still, let’s not relegate gratitude to sectarian politics or religion. For the philosophy of appreciation is much, much older than our America.
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others,” said Marcus Tullius Cicero, whom our Founding Fathers called “Tully.”
Epicurus, earlier, found the key to happiness — or “ataraxia,” as he called it (a kind of spiritual peace) — in storing up good memories and concentrating on them, rather than on one’s woes. This is gratefulness. It is a discipline.
It is not just a day or a good idea, it’s a key to virtue, as Cicero said.
But most of us of my generation probably remember the idea in a Sunday School song: “Count Your Blessings.”
Name them one by one.
As the world seems to spin into a kind of craziness, it may be hard to begin. So much madness and folly! Let me help:
We live in interesting times, and it is fascinating.
And maybe, if we keep our heads, we can help in setting some things right.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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