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Have you ever found the perfect word for what you want to say? These days the words that all too often come to mind are Lysenkoism and Parrhesia. These words have taken on new significance in today’s world, where 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are no longer fiction.
Our words are increasingly under attack. This is not the kind of welcomed fight — an exchange of ideas – but a below-the-belt attack. Name-calling and belittling did not suffice. Censorship, the tool of tyrants and cowards is not new. It has squelched advances in astronomy, biology, and medicine. Truth tends to win out but not before many have endured the loss of reputation and livelihoods. Poor Socrates was forced to kill himself for corrupting youth. The doctor who determined handwashing saved lives ⏤ died a broken man.
Let us not be broken by the likes of the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). This private group decided that doctors should somehow be punished with the loss of their licenses for spreading so-called medical misinformation and disinformation. Will Dr. Fauci lose his license? Masks, no masks, Covid vaccines stop transmission; Covid vaccines do not stop transmission. It seems certain people are immune from the iron fist.
The utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham said it so well: “As to the evil which results from censorship, it is impossible to measure it, because it is impossible to tell where it ends.” There is an antidote to this current scourge: parrhesia. As Socrates put it, “the cause of my unpopularity was my parrhesia, my fearless speech, my frank speech, my plain speech, my unintimidated speech.”
Let’s channel our inner Socrates and speak up.
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