Open marketplace of ideas is our fundamental right as writers
September 16th, 2008
It began with the idea – originally an English philosophical idea – that no one should fear bringing up unpopular ideas because truth will continually defeat falsehood. As naïve and hopeful as this idea seems, if you push the notion one more step, you create the right to place any idea into the marketplace. So what began with John Milton and John Stuart Mill evolved into the “open marketplace of ideas” when Thomas Jefferson got a grip on it.
What are we talking about here? We’re talking about what has become known as the “open marketplace of ideas,” and how that notion — fundamentally necessary in this culture — worked its way into the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and what that means. Sure, most studies of these topics might require a book shelf, so we’re doing our best to highlight it here in five minutes.
Every writer should know at least this much.
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