Quote:
Originally Posted by fluffygrrl
Hey quentin, there's one speciffic point in there that I'd like to settle. You say
This is not actually true. The greeks, who invented the thing we strive to copy today, and who made it work where ours to date hasn't yet, did have such freedom of speech, and it was limitless. And they considered that limitlessness key to their little engine that worked.
Actually, let me tell you a story.
Diogenes Kyon was sitting in the forum one day and masturbating. Some citizen or other passing by wanted to know if he doesn't it find it silly to be spending his time in the forum jacking off.
"No. And if hunger should also go away through rubbing of the belly, oh what a perfect world we'd inhabit".
Here's the one obscenity test that makes sense : Anything short of jacking off on the senate floor with the senate in session is not obscene. And so jacking off is not obscene either. Just a little silly.
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Ah, it could be that particular claim in my article was off-base. If so, though, it is a claim that has been repeated many times in similar ways by speech law scholars who are far more expert than I am. I was relying on their expertise, as I cannot claim to have examined the speech laws of every culture in history.
What was the crime for which Socrates was forced to choose between banishment and death? Wasn't it for corrupting his students through his teachings, all of which were communicated via speech? Sounds like a restriction on free speech to me, but maybe I'm wrong about the nature of Socrates' crime, as well.