“Nazis are banned from marching through a neighborhood of Nazi holocaust survivors.”
Three “imaginary” dialogues below argue that the above action should not be banned by law according to the principles of freedom espoused by John S. Mill in On Liberty.
DIALOGUE # 1 (Saul, a Nazi holocaust survivor; Todd, a J. S. Mill scholar)
Saul: Damn Nazi pigs! They have no right marching up and down our streets, in this community no less. It’s worse than Berlin. The cops have to stop them from marching.
Todd: Saul I understand the painful memories and emotions seeing a group of Nazi supporters marching down your streets must have for you and others in the community. However, they are only marching and not causing any harm to others other than dredging up a host of painful memories. America is founded on freedom of speech and thought.
Saul: You mean it is called freedom to march around promoting the values of hatred, racism and murder.
Todd: But those are value judgements Saul. What is racist to you or hateful may not be so to others. It is their opinion, and as detestable as it is to my own sense of values, they have a right to express that opinion as long as it is not causing harm to others according to John Mill.
Saul: Yeah, but you mean to tell me this kind of thing is not causing harm to those who were subjected to torture and brutality in the camps?
Todd: But they are expressing their beliefs and if we start to “police” the beliefs of others aren’t we in a way promoting the type of Fascism practiced by the Nazis?
Saul: Yes, but how about the fact that their distasteful actions are harming others emotionally?
Todd: Mill does not distinguish between hard and soft degrees of freedom. Rather, he believes it is for the good of the many that society does not take away personal freedoms to the point of limiting beliefs, opinions, thoughts and speech, “There are many who consider as a...