Eight Values of Free Expression

 

Eight Values of Free Expression

As an American, I believe it is very important to have the eight values of free expression. They are important because they allow us to stand up for ourselves, and stand out from the crowd, and if something isn't right we are allowed to speak up about it. The 3 most important values to me personally are the Marketplace of Ideas, Individual Self-fulfillment, and Promoting Innovation.

1. Market Place Of Ideas: Being able to express yourself and your opinions without government interference is very important. With the marketplace of ideas, you would think your right to express would always be protected right? Well, you would be wrong. In 2020 Twitter censored a New York Times post about Hunter Biden's laptop even though the post didn't violate any of Twitter's rules. I think it is insane how Biden was able to get away with this misuse of power. I believe he should have been held accountable for this and gotten at least a warning for impeachment. I can relate to this because there have been countless times I have liked a post online “exposing” political lies and the posts get taken down when I try to go back and show family or friends.

2. Individual Self-Fulfillment: The right to express yourself as an individual to think outside the box and participate in things such as entrepreneurship and such is a very important part of being an American. This expression I believe is a very underrated one. I say it's underrated because it is a universal fact that America allows this to happen but they don't support it enough as they should. If they truly cared they would tweak the school system in a way where children are encouraged to think outside the box and not be so “cookie cutter”. I can relate to it deeply because I consider myself an individual who always tries to go against the current and do my own thing, and along the entire path it's way more bumpy than it should be. I always felt something was off, I have been doing entrepreneurship my whole life, and every time I came home from school instead of being excited about learning new things, I felt drained and wasted, and my creative and free-thinking energy was robbed from me. On the other hand, when I now have the right classes for me in college and I'm not in high school, middle school, or elementary, I feel more energized and excited to put what I learn into my work. As a society, it's labeled that we have this free expression but I believe our government instead of protecting it tries to lessen its abilities. From starting kindergarten we start programming to go into the workforce and any traces of our creativity are killed. Children are failed by the school system and are robbed of being supported for being creative, taking risks, and learning problem-solving skills needed for entrepreneurship. Ken Robinson's TED talk on “How School Kills Creativity” talks about the need for reforming existing current education, and that creativity is just as important as literacy and basic school skills.