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April 19, 2006

Talk is Cheap; Liberty is Expensive

“While the most embattled cartoons in the history of that genre have receded from the front pages”, says an editorial in USA Today, “the fallout lives on. Just last week, the animated and often-controversial South Park television show took on the issue and was rebuffed when its creators tried to depict the prophet in a scene.

Instead, a black screen appeared with the words, ‘Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.’

It's more of the same in academia. New York University, for example, states that it is ‘committed to maintaining an environment where open, vigorous debate and speech can occur.’ But late last month, the Objectivist Club, a student group that supports the philosophy of Ayn Rand, discovered that the NYU policy is more situational than firm.

The club wanted to have a panel discussion, "Free Speech and the Danish Cartoons," but after protests from Muslim groups, the NYU administration insisted that the controversy could be discussed without showing the cartoons. When the club disagreed, NYU then imposed such limiting conditions on the club - including who could attend the discussion - that the club finally "voluntarily chose" not to show them.”

“Voluntarily” is the word used in the NYU administration’s press release anyhow. I’ll let the reader judge just how voluntary the decision really was. This all underscores what I believe is a simple fact of life; to see what people really value ask what they’re willing to pay for it. And not necessarily only with money either. Pay for with risk, reputation, and the willingness to go against the prevailing opinion of the elites and/or other powers-that-be.

All of which is why I prefer the market; people lie, deny, rationalize, and obfuscate. Markets don’t. If people say they believe in free speech and open intellectual inquiry, but are not willing to pay the price for what they cost, then do they truly believe in those things? Markets never make that mistake. If people say they want more of a good or service but won’t pay the price that is required to freely obtain it (i.e.- without force or fraud), then despite whatever denials to the contrary are made the truth of their sincerity is obvious.

Posted by Ali Massoud at April 19, 2006 10:06 AM

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