The Cost of “Free” Speech, The Cost of Reason
As in so many other things, the government has greatly inflated the cost of free speech.
In a post about political ads related to drug policy reform, Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution reminds us that saying something the government doesn’t like can be very expensive:
The Metro accepts all kinds of political ads but if it accepts any ad arguing against drug prohibition it, or any other transit authority, will lose all of its Federal funds.
In one way or another, the Federal government has its hand in everything, including the schools, the universities, and the airwaves. If the government can withdraw its funds from anything associated with arguments it doesn’t like then free speech will be very expensive.
The cost of the government’s intervention in the market of speech is much more than just dollars and cents.
As I’ve noted before, mandatory, coercive governments are based upon irrational premises. To be rational, it is necessary, by definition, to reject that which is irrational. The rational and the irrational are a binary circumstance; they are mutually exclusive. Rational people will by their very nature be at odds with irrational governments.
To speak out against the irrational nature of government, say at a university or on the airwaves, or, even worse, act upon your speech, could cost you funding, your job, your freedom or whatever the government wants it to cost.
To speak in support of irrational systems of government will make your life easier, it will be more financially rewarding, and you will keep your freedom.
When being speaking rationally becomes more expensive than speaking irrationally, what will people do?
Do that math and then consider the ramifications for the evolution of our species. When the government makes it too expensive to live a rational life, our society will evolve toward the irrational and the mystical. In that society rational speech will become even more expensive.
The cost of the government’s intervention in the market of speech and reason is not just financial; it is biological and psychological. The cost is the loss of our minds.
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