As writers we are all concerned with freedom of speech. Whenever that freedom seems threatened by government control of any kind, and particularly when censorship is political in nature, we rightly become very, very uncomfortable. When the views being censored are generally considered to be abhorrent, we trot out the old chestnut about 'defending to the death your right to say it'. As if it were that simple.
It's not. People who spread lies and slander, people who seek to stir up hatred against particular groups are dangerous. If lies are repeated often enough, especially lies that appeal to some of our commonplace doubts, fears and prejudices, those lies can become accepted as truths by far too many people. The consequences can be catastrophic. Anyone who doubts this should make a study of the Nazi propaganda from throughout the 1930's.
Civilisation needs to be protected from the corruption of lies. No society can permit complete 'freedom of speech', as most of us acknowledge when we accept limits, for example, to the pornographer's 'right' to exploit children. The thorny question is this – Who is to decide the limits of that freedom? The answer is, We are.
In East Germany at the time of 'die Wende', the tremendous upheavals that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, a slogan was heard again and again on the streets, it was painted on homemade signs, it became the unanswerable answer to tyranny. 'Wir sind das Volk'. We are the people. We, the people of a democracy, are the ones who determine for ourselves what is and is not acceptable as civilised discourse. In Britain today the government of 'we the people' has decided correctly. The
Dutch Dr. Goebbels can go back home and stay there.
