Freedom Of Speech
Is a Masonic value
“As the Flag is retired let us stand at salute in tribute to the emblem of the Nation that guarantees to its citizens the rights of free assembly, free speech, free worship – The rights of free men and of Freemasons.”
-Standard Work, Grand Lodge of Washington
In recent years I’ve grown increasingly concerned that our society seems to be placing less and less value on freedom of speech, and its closely related cousin, freedom of the press.
People from one side of the political spectrum seem ignore, or even cheer on restrictions on speech and the press when their side holds power and is doing it to ‘the other guys.’ Then political winds shift, as they always do, and the new people take power and begin oppressing viewpoints from the other side. This is of course a vicious circle, spiraling always downward, away from liberty and towards tyranny.
Those of us in the United States can look to the United Kingdom, where people are arrested for posing memes on social media to see where all of this could be ultimately headed. Indeed where we would already be if the First Amendment didn’t exist.
We could assume, I suppose, that this is a result of the current extreme political rhetoric and partisanship in our society. That it has come about because we are so badly divided.
But, that assumption would be wrong. If we want to see a time in our history even more divided politically, with even more radical claims about political opponents, we can simply read much published by the media during the Adams and Jefferson political campaigns. Those guys, and their allies in the media really knew how to sling mud! Yet these freedoms thrived into what is known to be an extremely vibrant and powerful future.
Freedom of speech can be really uncomfortable. People might say things that make us mad or that we think to be absurd. Things that challenge our assumptions. But as Masons, we are called upon, I believe, to support an individual’s right to say something that we might vehemently disagree with. Because by defending the right of another to say what he believes, we defend our own right to say what we believe.
Likewise, with freedom of the press. We may be strongly opposed to what we see as the other side’s slanted journalism, but we must defend the rights of those journalists, for if we do not our own favorites will sooner or later come under attack.
As our ritual points out, these are rights belonging to free men and Freemasons. And our Ancient Craft has always supported liberty and individual rights, not just here, but around our entire world.
What we must guard against is politicizing these rights in our minds. We can’t reach a point at which we start to believe that free speech and a free press is applicable to our side only, and that it is OK when these rights are somehow violated as long as the violations are restricted to the other side. For that is the way that these rights are sooner or later lost to everyone.
We must also, if we are speaking as Masons, ensure that our speech remains within the bounds of civility. For we all have a duty to protect the reputation of our Craft. Therefore when we speak, as Masons, we must hold ourselves to a higher standard. This is a duty that we voluntarily took upon ourselves.
Ultimately, if we are to ensure that the liberties we enjoy are to remain for our grandchildren to enjoy we must remember that the pendulum always swings. One side is never in power for long. So we must remember that if we are silent when our own side has power and tramples the rights of the other side, our rights will in turn be trampled.
The only way to avoid that is to take a principled stand. To stand always for those principles our Craft holds dear: “free assembly, free speech, free worship – The rights of free men and of Freemasons.”
Go Patriots! (Freedom of Sports 😂)
Voltaire's biographer stated "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" and this is something that I was raised on even if something is vile or something is blatantly untrue, I believe someone has the right to rant or state what they would feel as their opinion, their relationship between them and their deity is is between them, what they spew or eloquently proclaim in public you have to simply take as their right to be free in speech, even if you disagree with it or internally question their intelligence and their value to society.
Inside the head is where we think the impure thoughts, the thoughts that we hope no telepath will ever pull from our skulls.
Even if I fragrantly disagree with someone as long as they are not demonstrating or protesting in a violent manner but simply speaking, I feel they have a right to say this ironically I know many people would disagree with me.
Famously we are only three meals and 24 hours away from barbarism, this freedom of speech allows rational and objective behaviour to endure even when someone is not so doing their passions and explicitly demonstrating their freedom of speech. But freedom of speech can still have consequences especially depending on where you exercise this freedom it’s always good to read the room knowing your audience and knowing what kind of reaction you might gain the law often cannot protect you except in the abstract.
This is a great topic, and MW brings up several good points, as do the commentors. I'll just add a couple of thoughts.
One, social media, IMHO, would be much more civil if commentors were required to use their real names. It subtly forces one to think before throwing a bomb into the discussion.
Second, under Citizens United, corporations are considered people and can offer all the speech their assets can afford and Board direct. As I see it, the slick ads overwhelm whatever discussion the regular citizenry can possibly offer and is truly pernicious in undermining our principle of one man one vote.
Still basking in the Seahawk victory - let's repeat at SoFi next year!