Response to “The Freedom of Worthless and Harmful Speech” by George Kateb

Response to “The Freedom of Worthless and Harmful Speech” by George Kateb

            The arguments depict that not all harmful speeches are worthless as the author claims that such the latter speeches might be the source of significant harm that ignites positive progress. The harmful expression in this context is referred to as any form of speech that has a direct violation of personal rights by societal groups or government (Kateb, 1996). Furthermore, the author terms the harmful speeches as communication aspects that have long term tendencies that affect the fundamental rights and moral conduct of the people in a given society. Although these aspects have negative implications for the subjects, they are, on the other hand, the epitomes of positive progressions, as described by the author. Kateb (1996) categorizes the expression into two rival groups where he places the conventional religious and political expression in one end and hates speech, pornography, and political speech on the other. He further indicates that the first category in his grouping is much destructive than his second category, which is comprised of hate speech, pornography, and political speech (Kateb, 1996). Justice theories would suggest that to reduce misbehavior and the consequent need in the society, controlled freedom of expression has to be enhanced to limit the insensible and irrational utterances of some parties.

The author claims that his views are not claims on the implications of the expression on whether or not they are causing harm. They are a mere suggestion on and personal views on the impacts of every aspect of the situations in society (Kateb, 1996). Other aspects have long-term implications that have the tendencies of causing harm than good.  They lead to denial of one’s rights through interfering with the moral status of the people as some are way against the cross-cultural practices and the acceptable codes of conduct amongst the people. However, even though these expressions are a threat to the cultural and social landscape in the society, they possess some flays of beneficial importance (Kateb, 1996). A conventional religious expression like “if God is dead, then everything is permitted” is one of the religious expressions that displays concentrated negative implications than other expressions viewed in contemporary society is profoundly unfit. This expression includes the interpretation of pornographic access and the practice of hate speech. The books hence indicate that freedom is a two-way tool for bringing prosperity in the society and at the same time, causing destructions and harm depending on the approach it is expressed from.

The book further makes suggestions and gives the views of the author regarding the issues of consumer advertisement tools, which are mainly due through expression. According to the author, the situations create an insensible, mindless, and irrational consumerism mentality amongst the buyers of the goods and services which are being marketed by various agencies involved (Kateb, 1996). The harm caused by this aspect is directed to the citizens as they tend to believe in the persuasive tone used in the expressions resulting in the corrupted mindsets, which is destructive to the skeptic well-being of the people in the society (Kateb, 1996). These advertisements are mainly dispensed through social media channels such as the internet and televisions, which are causing harm through mass entertainments. The implications of this entertainment advertisement channels entice the youths to indulge in other online activities that corrode the moral values in the society. They are all worthless and extremely harmful to the victims involved in the scenario. The author further links this aspect with the earlier categories of expression and placing advertisement among the central element that causes harm to society (Kateb, 1996).

The author is quite aware of the influential muscle of religion and the possible effects it can cause in the society. This in that the latter has the potential of mobilizing the multitudes to protest or picket over something or an issue. The controversy and the negative face of this possibility is the fact that the point of protest should be diverse from religion because the religion is recognized for enhancement of proper and peaceful societal existence (Koteb, 1996). Therefore as much as the freedom of religion is defended by various stakeholders and civic groups; they should be well conversant with the negative implications they are likely to cause to the society (Kateb, 1996). Most of these harmful implications are perceived by believers and other vulnerable parties in the community, which include youth and women. From the indictment phrase of Nietzsche, “the metaphysics of the hangman” in Christianity indicate how the religion can be worse and affect the subscribers and other innocent parties like the children and the elderly population in the contemporary society (Kateb, 1996). The phrase speaks in loud tones with an apparent attitude about the effects of those who believe in any given religious denominations. Therefore the message on this aspect is made conspicuous by the author in the book.

In conclusion, the argument and message passed in the book “The freedom of worthless and harmful speech” by George Kateb demonstrate liberalism without Illusions and the implications of various expressions in society. The great and powerful contents shared in the books have numerous lessons that are essential for emulation and the educative lessons learned. The book describes the organizational expression approaches, which entail the collections of principles and a myriad of integrity theories concerning the employee expressions and perceptions of structural and social processes in the workplace. A distributive expressional aspect, a development from Adam’s equity theory of pay injustices, describes employee perceptions of the fairness of a decision. Distributive justice has implications for the allocation of rewards, resources, training and promotion opportunities, and work allocation. Related to distributive justice is procedural justice when the process for making a decision is transparent and unbiased.