OBEDIENCE SCHOOL
Ogged impishly posts this quote from Phillip Greenspun:
The U.S. Constitution guarantees that the government won’t interfere with your right to free speech. Private employers, however, are free to say “You will continue to receive a paycheck so long as you stay in your cubicle with your head down and your mouth shut.” Only a tiny fraction of Americans have a practical right to free speech and these are primarily the very rich and the very poor. A primary mission of a college is to prepare young people for the real world. Does it really make sense to delude kids into thinking that they can say whatever they want and still have a paycheck and health insurance? Perhaps it would be better for a university president to address the incoming freshmen thusly… “This is my plantation and if you want to stay here for four years you’ll learn to say ‘Yes, Massah'”.
There’s something to that, to be sure. But, of course, I don’t think universities are about training kids to be productive workers but rather teaching them to grapple with ideas. So, students ought to be encouraged to debate ideas–and met with stiff resistance in the form of strong counterargument–from their professors and deans. But, maybe, somewhere along the line someone should note that the real world doesn’t work that way.
I think Greenspun is way overstating the case. In general, companies have no problem with free speech by their employees, as long as it isn’t on a subject directly conflicting with the companies interest. He’s saying that just because you can’t say whatever you want without repercussions, you have no free speech at all. That isn’t true.
ls,
It depends largely on your job, too. If you’re some guy on the assembly line at a factory, you can say damned near anything you want as long as you’re not publically critical of the company. If you’re in a high visibility position, though, your ability to spout off is greatly constrained.
Agreed. I was thinking only of my own worker drone existence.
Generally someone who gets a high visibility position also gets the big bucks, and they are aware of the tradeoffs. (Except for that Diebold CEO, apparently.) That doesn’t seem inherently evil to me, either.
Greenspun doesn’t have it quite right vis a vis the First Amendment, either. The Constitution is *supposed* to guarantee that the government won’t interfere with your right to free speech, a fair trial, freedom to worship or not as you see fit, etc.
That’s not the way it always works, and it’s been getting worse since the advent of the Ashcroft Justice Department, in the form of secret trails, secret arrests, secret search warrants and other things I’m no longer authorized to comment about because they’re now classified.
Greenspun doesn’t live in the real world… never has… never will. He’s a spoiled rich kid who always did whatever he wanted.
Everyone has as much free speech as they choose from a legal rights persepective. But if the CEO of coke started dropping ‘N’ bombs, I imagine a lot of people would stop buying coke.
Free speech is a legal issue, not a practical issue. In the real world, what you say counts… and while you may not go to jail for it there may be other consequences.
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