Tuesday, February 21, 2006

"Fourth, we can believe that freedom of speech is important for people everywhere, and oppose oppressive regimes everywhere, including on the Arabian peninsula, for their intolerance of people who believe and speak inconsistently with the powers that be. Setting aside questions of feasibility and courage -- this option would require much sacrifice if it is to be backed by more than words -- how many Westerners today would support this option as desireable, even in the abstract? Libertarians of the right surely would, but how many Western leftists believe that the right of free speech is just another vestige of Occidental imperialism, another dead right discovered by dead white men?"