Milton's Areopagitica is one of the great classical defenses of free speech. It is also, more narrowly, a defense of unlicensed printing. This means that it specifically argues that a printer should not require the government's permission to produce texts, which would amount to official censorship of the material in question.
Milton begins by pointing out that no system of licensing prevailed in classical Greece or Rome. Even when Rome became Christian, the books of those who were condemned as heretics were only burned after publication, when they had been "examined, refuted, and condemned in the general Councils." Milton says that the system of licensing is a Catholic innovation, instituted by the Spanish Inquisition and since embraced enthusiastically by tyrannical Popes. This, of course, was an argument likely to carry weight with a Protestant parliament.
Milton then discusses the uses of reading. He says that
Moses, Daniel, and Paul, who were skillful in all the learning of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks, which could not probably be without reading their books of all sorts.
God gave everyone the agency to decide for themselves what books to read and even if the arguments are false, the mind is strengthened by learning to refute them. We are therefore weakened by censorship, since we never learn to refute the arguments against our own position.
The licensing order, Milton goes on to argue, will not protect anyone because the ignorant would not read the books it censors in any case and the learned will know how to refute their arguments. However, licensing will cause harm because it will result in books which make important arguments being censored on arbitrary grounds.
Milton is not entirely libertarian in his argument. He stresses that genuinely harmful books may be destroyed, but only after they have been printed and refuted. Censorship before the fact weakens the nation, making us lazy and conformist. He appeals to patriotism by pointing out, in one of the most famous passages, that this is not the natural condition of the nation:
Lords and Commons of England! consider what nation it is whereof ye are, and whereof ye are the governors: a nation not slow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can soar to.
Milton argues that censorship is undesirable because it prevents people from exercising critical thinking and reasoning. For Milton, to use one's reasoning is like building a muscle: it must be exposed to challenging ideas and even troubling, problematic content in order to grow strong. Milton argues that if such material is kept away from the average reader under the guise of protecting them, the government will only be ridding people of the capacity to form moral firmness.
This is especially pertinent, since temptation is an ever-present problem. Even if all the so-called immoral material in the world were to be suppressed, people will still face choices between good and evil every day. No matter the precautions taken by the government or even by individuals themselves, people cannot be protected from temptation. And since they cannot be protected from temptation, they must be equipped with a strong sense of moral reasoning—which can only be gained through reading a variety of material, even if said material is potentially dangerous.
He also links censorship with the practices of the Roman Catholic Church (viewed as an enemy in Milton's social milieu) and states that, as Protestants, they need to do much better in upholding intellectual freedom.
Milton wrote Areopagitica to criticize proposals by Parliament to censor books and other written materials before publication. He had been a staunch supporter of the Parliamentary cause during the Civil War, but he was implacably opposed to what he saw as its growing authoritarianism—especially in relation to free speech, which, as a writer, he greatly prized.
One of the strongest arguments that Milton makes against censorship is that it puts temptation in our way. If a certain book is banned, then that will simply make us more curious to find out what it contains. Attempts by the authorities to ban Lady Chatterley's Lover in early-1960s Britain vindicate Milton's point entirely. Far from removing temptation, censorship actively encourages it.
As a stout Protestant, Milton draws on biblical examples to flesh out his argument. He refers to the story of Adam and Eve, which, of course, formed the basis of his epic masterpiece Paradise Lost. Adam and Eve famously ate from the Tree of Knowledge in direct contravention of God's command. But they were only able to do this because God had given them the power to choose, and it's that God-given power which Parliament seeks to take away from grown adults when they try to determine what we can and can't read.
Humans have the freedom to choose. Sometimes they will choose wrongly, as in the case of Adam and Eve. But without the freedom to choose, then the worship of God would be mere obligation rather than true allegiance. Whether it's in relation to worshipping the Almighty or what books we read, man must be allowed to use his will and his reason, and reason, of its very nature, involves choice. And choice can only be meaningful if there's a range of options from which to choose. This means that different ideas, however ostensibly dangerous they may appear, should be allowed to circulate freely. Only then will we be able to make an informed, rational choice as to which ones we should accept or reject.
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