Monday, March 30, 2015

I was just Asking for Equality with Miley and Rihanna, Actually

About a year ago I wrote a short article titled 'Freedom is a Two Way Street', which was controversial with some readers. Specifically, it dealt with the idea that whilst I believe people should have freedom under the law to choose whatever way they want to live as long as it does not hurt others, other people (like myself) should be similarly entitled to promote a different lifestyle, and people should not be offended because of this. Maybe the tone of what I wrote sounded harsh. But I still think it's a very valid point to make. Let me explain further here.

People are entitled to their own beliefs, and are entitled to share them with the world as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. People like me will generally share with the world what we believe to be great lifestyle choices, because we want to enable more people to live happier lives. It should be seen as a noble intention, I think you would agree. It is my strong belief that it's very unwise to use drugs 'recreationally', whether it's marijuana or something else. Therefore, it's my strong passion to share this idea with others. What I was frustrated about (and still am somewhat frustrated about) is how some celebrities go out and promote the opposite of this (e.g. Miley Cyrus, Rihanna) and people think it's cool, but how my ideas seem so much more controversial, when freedom of speech should dictate that we have equal rights to speak out on any given topic. It's not like I'm judgemental or something like that, right?

Freedom of speech should mean that we don't shout down others for whatever ideas they promote, whether you like the idea in question or not. Peer pressure to make certain ideas taboo is a very dangerous idea. Society should never go there, really.