Blog Post #1

Protecting of Freedom

by: Brandon Walwyn

In Derek Bok's "Protecting Freedom of Expression on Campus", the main topic has to do with "freedom of Expression", specifically on college campuses. I feel that this topic is very controversial and should be discussed. In "Protecting Freedom of Expression on Campus", Bok Produces a strong, persuasive argument that "the power of censorship is so dangerous that it is extremely difficult to decide when a particular communication is offensive enough to warrant prohibition or to weigh the degree of offensiveness against the potential value of the communication."(pg. 70) I agree with Bok's argument. How can we really determine what is offensive enough to require prohibition?

In his essay, Bok objects to censorship that prevents people from being "offended", yet he does not object to campus police preventing people from being "harmed". I think that most people would disagree with Bok and say that censorship that prevents people from being both "harmed" and "offended" is necessary. But what is considered and offensive act or harmful act? The definition of the two could vary greatly depending on who you ask. However, I think the difference between acts that are harmful and those that are offensive is that harmful acts are always intended to cause injury, whether physical or mental, while offensive acts are not always intended to cause injury to a person. The definitions for harmful and offensives acts may seem similar, but the two can easily be distinguished. For example, if a person were to use "fighting words", as mention in Charles R. Lawrence's "On Racist Speech", they intend to "inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace", (pg. 65) and would therefore be committing a harmful act. An example of an offensive act could be a child saying that all people of a certain race look alike because they are not trying to cause harm by their statement. However, harmful and offensive acts do not only exist in the real world. Many young adults struggle in determining the difference between harmful and offensive acts, and this confusion is increased with the uses of social media apps that allows young users to post whatever they want, without thinking of the consequences. Thousands of teenagers have committed suicide because of harmful online acts. Because of this, I think that administrators should police and punish harmful and offensive behavior performed on social media.


http://www.thefire.org/misconceptions-about-the-fighting-words-exception/


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/although-69-of-teenagers-who-use-social-networking-websites-say-their-peers-are-mostly-kind-to-one-another-online-88-said.html