Hello readers!
As a newspaper, it is important to consider as many viewpoints as possible when expressing an opinion or covering a story. The Fundamental Freedoms section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom contains this: “Fundamental Freedoms: 2. Everybody has the following fundamental freedoms: … (b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Although freedom of thought, belief, and expression are all related, it is important to distinguish among them and how exercising one freedom can impede others.
As humans, we often enjoy the ability to do whatever we choose. As a society, we create laws that limit human behavior in a way that best reflects the common moral beliefs of those living in it. This allows us to co-exist in large densities without a large degree of conflict. It provides us with metrics for judging, for instance, whether being angry with a neighbor is acceptable. But we also have laws that protect freedoms. The balance of these two subsets creates contention between the right for these freedoms and the ability to restrict behavior such that the majority of the members of a given society do not feel negatively affected by others exercising their freedoms. The types and balance of restrictions and freedoms forms the basis for how we judge politics, both locally and internationally.
Freedom of thought is the freedom to mentally process a novel idea or an idea expressed by somebody else. Freedom of thought is a concept that has long been accepted as fundamental to a democratic society. However, most people regularly have their freedom of thought violated. Though laws have never upheld successful restrictions on what one may think, the biggest threat to a person’s freedom of thought is themselves. People hold beliefs. A person often uses their belief structure as a filter to their thoughts, instead of as a result of their thoughts. This happens when one chooses to not contemplate something because they believe that they already know the answer. Unfortunately, answers often change and nothing guarantees that the correct conclusion was reached the first time. Therefore, it is almost always beneficial to rethink previous conclusions when provoked. This being said, it is not wrong to rely on emotions for some decision making. Some issues we think about are personal, and it is important to make decisions that contribute to increasing or maintaining enjoyment, rather than only worrying about being correct. If it was required that everybody makes decisions solely on proven facts, it could be concluded that there is only one correct conclusion.
Freedom of belief is the freedom to believe that an opinion or idea is true. Beliefs differ from thoughts, because while a thought is an idea that may or may not be true, beliefs are ideas which we think are true. By beliefs, I am not specifically referring to religious beliefs. (Religious beliefs are often categorized separately.) However, freedom of belief is also held as an important aspect to a democratic society. Many protests and revolutions have occurred to liberate a person’s freedom of belief. Freedom of belief is easier to suppress than freedom of thought, but it is also easier to regulate against suppression. In Canada, the freedom of belief is rarely suppressed. However, it is often abused. The freedom of belief is abused through the encouragement of incorrect beliefs. As mentioned above, we abuse our own belief structure to avoid the effort of reevaluating our beliefs. However, others may infringe upon your freedom of belief by abusing their freedom of expression. The best way to protect yourself from this is to do unbiased research when forming these beliefs. When forming any new beliefs, make sure to exercise your freedom of thought. Again, there is nothing wrong with relying on emotions and past experience for reaching subjective conclusions. Without these inputs, subjective ideas would just represent objective ideas with a little less precision, instead of representing a different point of view. By naively removing this “human factor” of subjective ideas, it could be argued that every person should have the same beliefs, defeating the value of this freedom entirely.
Freedom of expression is the freedom to express a thought or belief. The freedom of expression is the most restricted of these three freedoms. This restriction occurs because, unlike thoughts and beliefs, a person’s expressions directly affect their surroundings. Expressions can, therefore, be measured, and laws can be made around their effects. In other places in the world, this ability is abused to ensure that the ideas being expressed are in agreement with the regional politics. In Canada, laws restricting the freedom of expression exist within reason. For instance, it is unacceptable to express beliefs in a way that harms another person physically or mentally. However, there is little restriction on providing false information. This allows anybody to promote their own ideas to others without repercussion for the integrity of their ideas. A person may express false ideas because they believe it is correct or because your belief in said idea could benefit them. For example, a person may tell you that a contract has no negative implications, even when it does. If you accept this as a belief without exercising your freedom of thought and belief by reviewing it thoroughly and coming to your own conclusion, you may be trapped by their abuse of their freedom of expression. Similarly, a news source may label an opinion article as news when it contains biased and non-thorough analysis. There is a certain American news station that is well known for containing a strong bias for the majority of their content. Such abuse of the freedom of expression hinders human progress. However, further restrictions to the freedom of expression would also hinder human progress. For this reason, it is important to exercise the freedom of thought and belief when evaluating an idea that has been expressed to you.
While reviewing how these freedoms interact with each other, some important points have been expressed. It is important to exercise your freedom of thought without letting your beliefs or another’s beliefs get in your way. Make sure to appropriately contemplate information provided to you, and to avoid believing something for the sole reason that another person expressed it as their belief. It is good to keep an open mind. However, people will abuse their freedom of expression, so stay vigilant when accepting the information.
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