Dear Josephus,

You asked me to define what I meant by the abuse of free speech.

Abuse is recognized in law and has long-defined sanctions on
those who spread it. It includes defamation, hate speech,
sexual harassment, laws against threatening others - for
example - ALTRAV's post on page 22 where he claims that he
will increase the abuse and resort to a "damn good
physical delivery," if someone's views that he disapproves of
persist. That clearly would constitute a crime.

To most people however, reason, conscience, and common sense
usually always prevails. Most people don't need things
to be specified in our laws. Therefore it is a very
short-sighted assumption that freedom of speech and freedom
of expression has no limits.

What happened in Rwanda during the 1994 Genocide against the
Tutsi where a musician Simon Bikindi, a journalist - Hassan Ngeze
who wrote the infamous Hutu Ten Commandments and Jean Bosco
Barayagwiza (RTLM) in a case that was commonly referred to as
"the hate media trial" were sentenced by the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) to more than 30 years in
prison each for the words that they said, sung or wrote.

The trio claimed that they exercised freedom of speech and
freedom of expression. Their conviction, trial and sentencing
by the ICTR was evidence that even the International law
recognises that there is a red line while exercising freedom
of speech and freedom of expression.

It is obvious that when freedom of speech is abused - it is
likely to create social disorder, violence and in extreme
cases death of innocent lives - as was the case in Rwanda
in 1994. And in many cases of teenage cyber-bullying that
results in suicides here in this country.

I hope this clarifies things for you.

Before I go I would like to Thank all those
who contributed to this discussion. For me
it has now run its course.

I look forward to seeing many of you in further
robust discussions in the future.

Have a nice day.

Dear Altrav,

The example you provided of a car blocking your driveway is complex and introduces new and barely-related elements: let's focus on the simple cases first.

I agree that people must be allowed to speak freely, but not necessarily in the hearing-range of others who do not agree to hear them.

The brain is physical and contains very delicate machinery. Sound vibrations that arrive at our ears cause permanent changes to the brain, mainly by way of creating new neural pathways and disconnecting others. Sages indicated that sense-impressions (including sound) cause scratches (called "vrittis", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vritti) not only in our physical brain but also in our minds, that last even beyond the life of our physical body. Nevertheless, I think that the modifications to our physical brain should suffice for this discussion.

In spirituality we aim to refine our thoughts and the content of our minds, to think about God as much as possible and entertain violence and profanities as little as possible.

Avoiding to damage other people's brains and contaminate them with our garbage, is not a matter of shyness or fear, but of decency and respect.

When you and another person agree to interfere with each other's chin or brain, then indeed this is completely between you two and nobody else should be able to intervene. As far as I am concerned, you two may agree to kill each other and no law should punish you for that.

Yes, there are ways, physical and diplomatic, to deflect unwanted attention, but I see nothing wrong if the public designates that some or all public spaces should provide a tranquil environment for those who use them, promoting peace of body and peace of mind.

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Dear Canem Malum,

Almost, except that Yuyutsu was a character from the Mahabharata rather than from the Vedas. Just before the great battle began, he defected from the evil camp and joined the forces of good.

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Dear Joe,

I would fight for your freedom to print whatever you like - just respect my private space by not placing it in my mail-box. Thank you.

Yuyutsu and others, sorry but we as humans have a wide range of emotions and talents.
Even the most mature and intelligent of us have them.
I understand there are those out there who lack the imagination and fortitude to navigate through some of the events and detours that are ever present in our day to day lives.
Your kind of person is what is sometimes described as a lesser person for lacking in some of the humans natural make-up.
I accept that there are lesser people than myself out there, until I am forced to act like a lesser person.
The fact that someone does not want to have their brain 'scratched' is a fantasy, and not worthy of thought.
We are individuals.
As such we will say what ever we feel.
The public arena will censure us.
For example, someone starts getting agitated and abusive towards another in a restaurant.
Out of all the patrons in that restaurant one or more people will get up and face off against this person, who may be forced to leave or bring it down a notch.
If he does not comply or persists he will be restrained or ejected and if he still persists with his tirade outside he will be dealt with by the police when they are obviously called.
So you see the fear of having to hear something you don't like, being said in a public place,is taken care of.
There are laws in place to cater for these issues already.
We don't need any more petty issues clogging up the works.
You say you don't want to hear certain things.
Well I have a 'murder' of crows living in a tree in the school next door.
They are the most annoying of creatures ever to exist.
Spare a thought for those of us living within earshot of these vermin when all day you hear, as loud as possible, FAAAAARK, FAAAAARK.
Which as you know sounds very much like a human sexual act.
Now that is something worth bitching about.

Dear Altrav,

You come out here as quite an unrefined person: rough, insensitive and inconsiderate, you do try hard to look like one.
Yet I wonder whether you are truly like this in real life too - I suspect that you don't as your posts look more and more like a grotesque satire of such people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP0B8hrOo0Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNF8ADpW7mE

Yuyutsu, since you brought it up.
Life is a satire of such people.
Apparently you might have to get together with Foxy and get out a little more and experience the 'real' world.
I am whatever I am.
I am a very understanding person.
I am a very pragmatic person.
I am a practical person.
I am an honest person.
And maybe because of this last comment I am incapable of lying.
It is an historic fact that wogs are a proud people.
It then stands to reason that I will not lie for fear of being outed, thereby leaving me embarrassed and feeling sidelined.
I would feel the same about someone who is lying to me, especially using a front like PC to justify their lies, propositions or beliefs.