The Drawbacks of Freedom

The United States constitution grants many freedoms with minimal to no restrictions, which can be considered beneficial to the public. In “we are free to be you, me, stupid, and dead” by Roger Rosenblatt, he relays the disadvantages of limitless freedom. He focuses mainly on freedom of speech and the possible drawbacks to having ungoverned freedom of expression.

Roger points out the public faulty rationale in the first paragraph as he says, “Everyone loves free expression as long as it isn't exercised”. Here, Roger reveals the contradiction between the people’s demand for the expansion of their freedoms, and their unwillingness to tolerate the results. Simply put, Roger believes that people support freedom of speech as long it does not affect or offend them. He reinforces his assumption through examples that show the misuse of a limitless freedom.

Roger gives two examples that display actions that freedom of speech protects. Yet, these actions infuriate the public. First, Roger gives the story of a basketball player who refused to stand up for the playing of the national anthem because of personal religious convictions. The basketball association suspended him from the league. He continues with a second story of a baseball player the major league baseball suspended; for saying that he did not want to ride New York City's Number 7 subway with single moms and aliens.

In both examples, Roger refers to the wording of the constitution. He believes the wording of the constitution is part of the problem that causes misinterpretation of the freedom provided by the constitution. He also believes that the wording restricts government authority, at the same time distorting public opinion.

Roger continues to indicate that ungoverned free...

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...uing example that Roger supply is a book called Hitler’s Hang-Ups. In Springfield, they banned this book because it offered explicit sexual details about Hitler’s life, Roger immediately points out the fault in their reasoning. Taking into account the other details of Hitler’s life, providing sexual details about his life is relatively acceptable.

Throughout his argument, Roger provides many examples to support his thesis, whether it was the freedom of expression or free thought. Also, in his comparison between the conditions in the Soviet Union, in which people secretly published books to support their free thoughts, and the conditions in the United States, in which people ban books for feeble reasons, we will realize that ungoverned freedom can lead to the restriction of free thought. Yet, it is not decided whether unrestricted freedoms are acceptable or not.