From: Jake Sapiens (every1hz@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Feb 09 2004 - 13:18:51 MST
> [Original Message]
> From: Blunderov <squooker@mweb.co.za>
> To: <virus@lucifer.com>
> Date: 02/09/2004 9:28:21 AM
> Subject: RE: virus: Re:terrorising air passengers..
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-virus@lucifer.com [mailto:owner-virus@lucifer.com] On Behalf
> Of Mermaid
> Sent: 09 February 2004 03:13 PM
> To: virus@lucifer.com
> Subject: virus: Re:terrorising air passengers..
>
>
> [Blunderov]
> Truly fascinating! Does he have less of a right to speak his own mind
> freely if he is working for someone? Or is there always a sort of
> Faustian pact implicit in accepting employment?
>
> [Mermaid]Are you supporting the right of public and private sector
> employees to bring in their personal viewpoints with the general
> populace they are servicing?
>
> [Blunderov1]
> Yes I do believe I am. Unless they express opinions which militate
> against the venture that they have undertaken to foster, I can see no
> reason to preclude them from expressing themselves as they see fit.
> Presuming that the passengers were under no compulsion to comply with
> the pilot's suggestion, it is not clear to me that the pilot had harmed
> the airlines interests and, who knows, he may even have enhanced them.
>
> I am not in favour of absolute freedom of speech - the famous example of
> shouting 'fire' in a crowded cinema when there is no danger is salutary.
> But I am very jealous of as broad a right to free speech as is
> reasonably possible and any attempt to constrain it arouses within me a
> deep suspicion.
>
> Best Regards
In this country, and every country that has a tradition of free speech,
jurisprudence has always recognized time place and manner restrictions on
free speech. Indeed, I don't think you can successfully have a free
society without respecting some restrictions like this. Here the pilot and
the passengers are not in an equal situation. They are quite literally a
captive audience. Even if I didn't like what the pilot was saying, I would
still have to listen to him in the possibility that something he might say
would have some relevance to my personal safety. To put his actions under
the label of free speech is much more destructive than promoting of free
speech. You can safely turn off the TV or radio, put down the newspaper or
magazine, or walk away from or simply ignore a person trying to talk to you
in an ordinary public place. Indeed airport terminals have been long
judicially recognized as public places with wide free speech latitude. But
the same does not hold true with the captive audience of a commercial pilot
on his airline. I think either the airline or the FAA would be perfectly
in line to forbid this kind of behavior, and I bet just about any court
would not find this a violation of free speech.
-Jake
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to
<http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
--- Jake Sapiens
--- every1hz@earthlink.net
--- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.
--- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Feb 09 2004 - 11:17:04 MST