Random musings: Freedom of expression

That's the topic of a call I will be speaking on this morning at 9:00 PDT. Please feel free to listen in at https://22s.com/7923. I'm not sure if it will be recorded but I'm hoping it will be.

For most of the past week I didn't really think too much about the topic until today. There seems to be a lot of stuff in the news these days about freedom of expression.

I think a lot of people seem to believe that freedom of expression means that they get to say or do whatever they want and that everyone else just has to accept it because it's their right to express themselves. It's true that we're free to express ourselves, but we're not free from the repercussions of what we say or do. So, if you want to stomp or defecate on the American flag, don't be surprised if millions of people hate you...or worse.

But it can also go too far the other way. Many people are afraid to express themselves for fear of offending someone. But no matter what you say or do, someone might end up being offended by it. Suppose you were offering a million dollars. That sounds like a good thing, right? But someone may be offended because it's not two million dollars. Someone else may be offended because they see it as a handout and they refuse to accept a handout. And someone else may be offended that it's in dollars instead of Euros. Somebody, somewhere, may be offended by whatever you have to offer; whether it's a million dollars, your product or service, or yourself.

You can't please everyone and if you try to please everyone or not offend anyone, you end up pleasing no one and offending everyone.

Take the holidays, for instance. I was raised to celebrate Christmas and I tend to say "Merry Christmas". I don't say it because I think the holiday I celebrate is better than somebody else's. I say it because it signifies joy and goodwill to me. But if I know someone is Jewish I'll wish them "Happy Hanukah" because, at least in my limited understanding, that means the same thing to them as "Merry Christmas" means to me. And if someone wishes me a "Happy Hanukah" I'm not offended, rather I'm grateful that they care enough to share something important to them with me.

As a blog writer, I'm able to say what's important to me. And I hope that what's important to me is at least interesting to others. I try not to purposely offend anyone although I know that it's pretty much impossible to never offend somebody. I try to educate, uplift and entertain. If I occasionally accomplish one or more of those, without offending too many people, then I have succeeded.