This morning I was looking at an online Spout Off string entitled What's Going on with Jerry Thornton. ( http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16457 ) It has been viewed over 6000 times and there are over 70 comments posted. No doubt the topic is of significant public interest. Anything that gets over 6000 hits on a website is a webmaster's dream.
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At first, I thought, the Spout Off forum is an excellent tool, a Champion of Free Speech. It gives people the ability to post almost any topic and lets anyone post a comment on that topic. We sometimes don't appreciate what a gift Free Speech is. When I was a college student I studied World Politics. At the time, half the World was controlled by the Communist Soviet Union. Their goal was to put every business, every man, woman and child under state control. One of my professors brought in a guest speaker. He was a young man from Poland, a country that was cruelly dominated and oppressed by the Russians. This young man told us the story of how he and a friend had risked their lives to leave Poland, which was illegal, and then to smuggle back into Poland the most valuable weapon the Polish people could possibly possess. It was a weapon that would allow the Polish people to drive the Soviets out of the country. It would restore freedom to a proud and vibrant people who had endured nearly 50 years of brutal occupation by the Nazis then the Russians. The young man and his friend nearly died in the forests smuggling the weapon in and were almost caught several times, which would have meant certain execution. What was the weapon they smuggled into Poland? It was an old, hand-cranked mimeograph machine. A copier. It was not a bomb. It was not a crate of guns. It was a copier that was used to print thousands of leaflets to spread the word of the Solidarity Movement throughout Poland. The leaflets helped to organize the resistance and eventually the Communists fled and the President of Solidarity became the President of Poland. Speech is especially valuable and difficult when it is not Free. These young Poles in the 1980's would have been killed by their government if they were caught engaging in speech that challenged the government's iron grip on power. They bravely risked their lives so that others might be freed through the use of the written word. Obviously, Spout Off is not so dramatic or risky, but I think it springs from the same desire for free and open speech without fear of retribution.
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Well, I wish I hadn't had that last thought. That got me thinking about fear of retribution. Those young men in Poland were hiding in the woods and smuggling the copier in because of their fear of being caught and the reprisals that would come from a dictatorial regime. What are the commenters on Spout Off afraid of? All of the posts are anonymous. Are those posting in fear of some reprisal? Is their fear legitimate? And, if so, what are the reprisals and who is the tyrant? The print Spout Off and the online forum all accept anonymous posts. Indeed, the whole attraction of Spout Off is its anonymity. It allows people to say things about their bosses, their elected officials, their friends and enemies in a way that would be impossible if they used their real names.
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Aye, there's the rub. Why is it impossible? Because, like our Polish friends, we live in fear of reprisal. Certainly, we don't face execution, but the execution of our plans in life maybe. We can imagine that if someone's boss knew what they had posted on Spout Off, they wouldn't get that promotion they are shooting for. We can certainly picture a political boss shutting down the path to advancement of a young partisan because of what was said on Spout Off. The retribution for practicing Free Speech would be as real as the fire squad awaiting the Polish smugglers, though obviously not as severe.
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Spout Off reveals just how limited our right of Free Speech is. We can say in public nearly whatever we want in this Country without fear of government agents standing us up before a firing squad. But there is not much we can say publicly without fear of little private tyrants practicing their own form of execution upon us. When you hear someone say, "Spout Off is irresponsible. People should be required to include their names." That usually means that the speaker suspects who the Spouter is and has some power over them and if only they could get their names they would exact their vengeance. Spout Off is an excellent tool for Free Speech and Freedom of expression (though it is frustrating when you are the target of anonymous comments). But Spout Off also may reveal that there are extreme limits of our Free Speech. Anonymous Speech and Free Speech are not quite opposites, but they are certainly not the same thing. The freer the speech, the greater the likelihood of reprisal from some little tyrant and the greater the potential cost is to the speaker.
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But the great Movements, like Solidarity in Poland, are marked by the point in time where those employing screen names put them aside in favor of their real names. The Tree of Liberty is not maintained by those willing to impose harsh reprisals on the practitioners of Free Speech, but rather by those who are ready to endure the reprisals by speaking out in order that the Tree may thrive.