AGREE TO DISAGREE, WITH LOVE

“I may disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

-   Evelyn Beatrice Hall

  (paraphrasing Voltaire in her biography of the philosopher)

If I disagree with you, should I hate you? Of course not. Sometimes my spouse and I don’t like the same films or songs, but we still love each other.  She can freely express her dislike for something I enjoy, and it’s okay. That’s not unusual is it?

Then why is it that one of the most troubling aspects of our society today is that we have lost our tolerance for free speech. This can be seen in the existence of cancel culture, including the attempt to ban all speech that a relatively small group disagrees with. This is nothing less than censorship. Terms such as “hate speech” pervade the lexicon today, and the list of words and phrases this describes grows larger every day. This is nothing less than an attack on freedom.

What is an act of hate is demonizing someone or a group because they have a different belief system than yours.

Is it not possible for those with opposing views, even on the most divisive issues, to love each other? If not, why not? Just because they disagree? A free exchange of ideas and open conversations about them are what makes a society civil, perhaps even civilized.

Whether or not speech is appropriate or not is in the ear of the listener. It should not be mandated by law or decided by mob rule.

The bottom line is we should always strive to err on the side of allowing questionable speech, not censoring it. Otherwise, it is no different than burning books we don’t like. And, hopefully most of us would agree, that is a bad idea.

We can all strive to be more tolerant of what we hear, and at the same time be able to really mean it when we say, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."