Comments on: Noa Mendelsohn Aviv’s opening remarks http://www.novascotiascott.com/2008/11/02/noa-mendelsohn-avivs-opening-remarks/ Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:35:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: truepeers http://www.novascotiascott.com/2008/11/02/noa-mendelsohn-avivs-opening-remarks/comment-page-1/#comment-239 truepeers Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:16:29 +0000 http://www.novascotiascott.com/?p=815#comment-239 The problem with trying to defend a right to freedom of expression in terms of its benefit to "equality" is that free expression of the kind that needs to be protected - i.e. truly innovative speech/writing that comes to grip with new events and trends - is by its very nature an act of differentiation, of making a difference. If we are not speaking merely about an equality of right to participate in the public debate, then taken-for-granted odes to equality will likely only corrode the defense of the necessary freedom to differentiate. More to the point, there can be no serious defense of freedom unless and until we have a more widely-shared conversation into the origin of the originary human differentiation of freedom and equality. I find it tiresome that leftists/liberals can go on endlessly about the greatness of our intuition about the fundamental nature of equality, while never really explaining it. They really do think it is the invention of some modern "human rights" movement, when in fact our (non-animalistic) intuition about our inter-individual equality is something as fundamental to humanity as is the freedom to make a difference. The problem with trying to defend a right to freedom of expression in terms of its benefit to “equality” is that free expression of the kind that needs to be protected – i.e. truly innovative speech/writing that comes to grip with new events and trends – is by its very nature an act of differentiation, of making a difference. If we are not speaking merely about an equality of right to participate in the public debate, then taken-for-granted odes to equality will likely only corrode the defense of the necessary freedom to differentiate.

More to the point, there can be no serious defense of freedom unless and until we have a more widely-shared conversation into the origin of the originary human differentiation of freedom and equality. I find it tiresome that leftists/liberals can go on endlessly about the greatness of our intuition about the fundamental nature of equality, while never really explaining it. They really do think it is the invention of some modern “human rights” movement, when in fact our (non-animalistic) intuition about our inter-individual equality is something as fundamental to humanity as is the freedom to make a difference.

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