In his introduction to his wonderful Age of Reason Thomas Paine implores that the reader give his work the same accordance he has given “every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.” It was undoubtedly important to Thomas Paine considering he was writing about religion in a time where apostasy was still considered a grave offense. While the writing was published at the tail end of the European Enlightenment and at the height of the French Revolution, he still felt the need to highlight the necessity of liberty and differences of opinion. He defended this with the following:
He who denies this [right of different opinion] makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it. The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is Reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall.
So do these arguments that one of the leading figures of two history-defining revolutions still hold water today? Does freedom of expression matter in a country where success is defined by birthright and wealth? What price dissent when only a minority holds a dissenting point of view?
Christopher Hitchens once famously alluded in a lecture that if the entire world strongly believed the narrative of the holocaust and there existed a small minority that denied its existence, then it would be of undoubted importance to defend the right of that minority to speak. Even if one is disgusted by the thought of holocaust denial, even if the roots of such denial may be rooted in militant Islam or anti-semitism, the defense of their right-to-thought was paramount.
Hitchens supports his arguments with two points. The first is a restatement of Thomas Paine’s. Namely, freedom of expression is important because it allows for a different perspective. Secondly and perhaps more importantly, when one quells dissent and makes it into law, one day that law may be turned against your own right to expression.
So how does this relate to Thailand? As Thomas Paine puts it, the greatest weapon against all sins is the ability to reason. An important component of reason is the ability to raise questions. Questions and doubts against whatever narrative prove its importance as it strengthens or demolishes the existing status quo. Were it not for the prevalence and skepticism of proponents of intelligent designs, the theory of evolution might not have advance so far and so fast and become so air tight in its rhetoric. Were it not for the skepticism of the Martin Luther the world might still be under the inquisition of the Catholic Church.
Yet that ability to question and doubt that is paramount to reason is degraded and defiled in our society. Most would state the obvious here, most would highlight certain laws and regulations that limit our ability to think and express. But the argument could be taken much further.
Iconoclast Richard Dawkins and astrophysicists Neil Degrasse Tyson have made similar observations that the natural state of children is one of inquisition. Everything is questioned; everything is new and open to their skepticism. Tyson states that “everyone is born a scientist” and that society eventually beats it out of them. Education is meant to savor some of that natural doubt and sense of inquisition. But if one were to look at Thailand, the classroom is a place where questions are rarely asked and a head down and remember mentality is often employed. Instead of reaction we value regurgitation. Instead of questions we value quotas. Instead of essays we value standardized testing. The radical is not celebrated here, the different are often punished, we replace individuality with student uniforms, and we replace free thought with standard equations.
Why does this matter? Well the continued argument against the red shirt movement is that they are being spoon fed by the Thaksin camp, that they are mindless drones supporting their deposed queen bee. But if that is the case then the real culprits has been the years of institutionalized education that has replaced the natural inquistition and reason of man with a mindless drone like persona. If there is to be change then freedom of expression is the answer and not the enemy.
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Cod Satrusayang is a writer and a blogger based in Bangkok, Thailand. His works have appeared in the Asian Sentinel, CNN, The Huffington Post and a myriad of other publications. His new book The Fall is due out in the summer of 2014.