Freedom of Expression.
What is it? What does it entail? Why do we need it?
To answer the last question, you must first answer the first question. What is Freedom of Expression? According to the Freedom Forum Institute, Freedom of Expression is defined as "the ability of an individual or group of individuals to express their beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and emotions about different issues free from government censorship." Now if you think that sounds a lot like Freedom of Speech then you would be right in that assumption. Freedom of Expression is the general outline or blueprint for the idea of democracy, and it does it through the use of 8 values.
I won't go through each of those 8 values, instead, I will focus on Stable Change, Promote Innovation. Let's first talk about Promote Innovation. What is it? According to the Deutsches Institut fur Normung it's "The ability to implement new ideas and research findings as innovative products, methods, and services" I chose to talk about this one because I feel this is essential in pushing forward new and interesting technologies to help better our everyday lives. Here in America, we are one of the world leaders in advancing technology, and having the ability to express your beliefs and needs through the use of new technologies is one of the ways that America has surged forward in the technological industry. Having the opportunity to rise to the challenge and make something of your own free will to help better the lives of those around you, is why I think Promote Innovation is essential to Freedom of Expression.
The next one is Stable Change. Stable Change is the ideology that angry and alienated citizens are allowed to speak freely and vent about topics and issues that they have a problem with, leading to a less violent reaction from those particular people. This value falls right in line with Freedom of Speech, in fact, I couldn't think of a more appropriate example of the benefits of free speech than this. When I was younger, I remember my dad told me, "a cornered animal will always fight for its survival, but allow it to see a way out and it will jump at the opportunity to run away" I feel this perfectly fits in with this scenario. It is better to allow an angry person to express why they are angry than it is to force them to bottle up their feelings just for it to blow up at a later date. Imagine for a second, that we lived in a country where everything with a negative outlook towards the government and no criticizing of the government's actions was allowed at all. The truth is, that type of state is simply impossible to maintain, people have opinions, and when they aren't given a platform to share those opinions they end up making their own, and often times it can lead to violence.
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