Eight Values of Free Expression

The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. There are Eight Values of Free Expression: Marketplace of Ideas, Participation in Self-Government, Stable Change, Individual Self-Fulfillment, Check on Governmental Power, Promote Tolerance, Promote Innovation, and finally, Protect Dissent. 

While reading the article, Promoting Innovation was crucial for me because we would not be who we are today without it. It makes everyone feel allowed to be different and express themselves freely. It gives people the initiative to succeed in their personal goals. These share everyone's different values in life and can help people find new interests/talents every day. It allows you to explore whatever gives your interest freely. One of the most important values I came across was to Protect Dissent. America would not be the same at all without it because there would be no one that would be allowed to stand against the Government or higher authority. If different minority groups did not ever go against the rule, we would still have no rights for African Americans, Women, LGBT+, etc. There would never be any protest for “unpopular” views or going against what people thought were the norms at the time, “it is your patriotic duty to criticize the government.” Criticizing the Government is not a bad thing. It is what makes us the country we are.

Some values that connect with me are Individual Self-Fulfillment. This helps people, especially me, be true to themselves and not be afraid of who they are. You can be of any religion, sex, or sexual orientation, and you can still express yourself however you want to. If you are not the “norm,” you still have the same rights as everyone, when it was not like this. If we did not have this value, we would not have the essential human diversity or free speech we have today. Something else that is personal to me is Stable Change. This primary value allows you to change something safely and effectively. It states that citizens should be able to speak their minds, or they can resort to things like violence. It is a benefit for the Government to hear such complaints so that they can try to fix the problem before it turns into something bigger. One of the values that resonated with me was Promote Tolerance. Reading “A more tolerant society is a better society” made me think about how that is true in many ways. Things become a lot easier when people do what they are supposed to and do not resist or fight back. On the other hand, that also leaves little room for diversity and the uniqueness of everyone and their opinions. I agree that freedom of speech teaches us many different lessons and is needed for a prosperous and functional society.

Something happening in the real world that connects to the Individual Self-Fulfillment theory is TikTok. There are a lot of famous people on TikTok that are famous for doing very controversial things. They only want to attract specific audience groups, yet it still works because TikTok is excellent at knowing your target audience. If we did not have Individual Self-Fulfillment, these famous TikTokers could not freely explore their own identity or freedom of speech. Another example corresponds to the Stable Change value. People publicly talk badly about the Government, the president, Congress, etc., which would never be allowed in another country. In America, people are allowed to complain and want to change aspects of the Government. It helps the Government here, but that could even be illegal in other places.

Overall, it was very informative to learn about these values as I already use them daily, just didn't know I got that freedom that other do not have.