Freedom to hate?

Here in Canada, the Tories are proposing removing the 'hate speech' provisions of the Human Rights Code. Hate speech is also a crime pursuant to the criminal code. The double legislation is not redundant: crimes are offences against Her Majesty, punished by the state by penalties including incarceration; the Human rights Code provides a civil avenue for individual victims to seek redress. Virtually all crimes also give rise to civil actions.

More interestingly, the British are in the midst of a diplomatic row with the Dutch over the choice by a visiting Dutch MP to preview a very provocative film highlighting violence caused by Islamic terrorists along with verses from the Koran.

I hate to say this, both because I feel strongly about protecting Human Rights and because in particular I think that there are far too many douchebags out there spreading this kind of garbage... I hate to say it, but not more than I hate attacks on free speech.

Free speech is not just one on a menu of human rights. It might be in some societies, but not in a democratic society. Freedom of conscience is a joke: what matter if you can believe as you please, but not do or say anything in relation to those beliefs? Freedom of assembly? For losers. Who cares how many people you can assemble if you can't discuss with them your beliefs and the purpose of your assembly? Freedom of religion? Just try it without religious speech in the form of books, sermons, etc. How about Democracy itself? Nothing but a flaming bag of shit on your doorstep if you do not have free speech.

Free speech is not a principle of democracy, it is a pre-condition for it. There is no higher right in a democracy: it is the right on which all other democratic rights depend.

This is not just high-minded BS - I think a free market of ideas works. The way to deal with a guy like Ernst Zundel (e.g.) is just to show everyone what a disgusting liar he is, not to make a martyr of him or to try to sweep offensive comments from the field. Rebutting hate speech is the best way to deal with hate speech, not just as a philosophical but as a practical matter.

Let them spew their filth and drown in it.

Whose fault?

Today, top British banking officials publicly apologized for their role in the financial crisis and their responsibility for the taxpayer funded bailout of their banks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7880292.stm

They actually said sorry. They actually admitted making mistakes. How refreshing.

But if I recall correctly, this crisis did NOT start in the UK! The people who are most responsible have not yet admitted anything or apologized for anything. In fact, virtually all top executives, board members, and economic commentators in the US parrot the same line: there is no personal responsibility on those executives and board members.

That is a load of crap. Their defence of themselves, while spirited, is completely false:

1) They have no personal responsibility: Really? Last time I checked executives and board members had not just personal responsibility but fiduciary responsibilities to their companies (now insolvent) and shareholders (now homeless). There was never any barrier to recognizing their responsibility for generating profits and compensating them accordingly; even if this is not their fault in a direct sense, they are still responsible for results, losses as well as profits, and they should all be fired. It's a performance issue.

2) It was a systemic problem. So say executives of the big banks and insurers that have consistently and successfully lobbied for reduced regulation and oversight. So says the dean of the Chicago School, who is of course directly responsible for indoctrinating the current generation of executives to believe that they can take credit for profit but avoid blame for losses. So say, in short, the people who are responsible for designing, building, overseeing, and maintaining the system. Systems are not magical creatures like unicorns - they are made up of actual people, and they are formed from the work and on the beliefs of those people. Don't blame the system - blame the people who made it and benefited from it. They are the system.

3) They could not have seen it coming! Lots of people saw it coming. Perhaps they mean they didn't see it coming this quarter and so, although they knew it would all come crashing down, they were justified in reaping profits right up until the last minute.

4) They didn't understand the instruments that were being created. Why the hell not? If they were in charge of a milk factory and claimed they couldn't understand the effect of boosting protein in baby-milk, they would be in jail. Their job was management, their job was oversight. That includes recognizing when you have lost control of your horses and trying to rein them back in. If they really didn't understand the instruments or their impact, they had an obligation to stop their creation and distribution until such time as they had the information and understanding they needed to make a reasonable evaluation. Saying they didn't understand it but let it happen anyway is basically admitting they were reckless and wilfully blind to the consequences of their action (which, of course, should land them in jail).

5) The executives were behaving reasonably in the context of their compensation structures. Compensations structures they helped create, and which very obviously rewarded short-term gains with no concern at all for the long-term health fo the company, economy, our nation. The short-term comp structures they created directly contributed to the long-term collapse. They are directly responsible for this.

The worst part of it is that they pretend you can solve the problem without laying blame. Garbage! You can't understand the problem unless you lay blame.

Hypocrites!! The very same people are happy to heap blame on developing countries when they default, and are happy to provide them with loans tied to strict reform conditions so that the developing countries are re-made in their own image. But when they themselves default, when it is their economy that tanks, it's no one's fault, and there is no need to enquire into the merits of the underlying system. It's just time to buckle down and all pull in the same direction - the direction recommended by the very people who created this mess and still maintain they are blameless.

I hope their lack of contrition is taken into account in their sentencing.