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ASSIGNMENT
Make a list of all cultural allusions you will encounter in the
movie.
SUGGESTED ESSAY TOPICS
1. Forrest Gump: a genius or a retard?
2. Forrest Gump — All-American Hero.
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Unit 10
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
PREREADING
1. Would you list freedom of speech among the top American
values? Why/why not?
2. What do you understand by freedom of speech? Can this
freedom have any limitations?
3. Is freedom of speech characteristic only of democratic societies?
TEXT 1
WHAT IS ‘FREEDOM OF SPEECH’?
Freedom of speech is a type of liberty right. We have a right to
express our opinion without interference from the government or other
people. The primary value of freedom of speech, according to most
liberals, is the promotion of truth and expression. They argue that
freedom of speech is at the heart of democracy. Expression of ideas
cannot be prohibited simply because people find them offensive or
disagreeable.
Not all forms of verbal expression, however, are considered
speech. Words can also be used as weapons. Yelling “Fire!” in a
crowded theater; “fighting words” intended to inflame someone into
committing violent actions; and slanderous, false rumors intended to
ruin the reputation and livelihood of someone are not generally
protected under freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is generally distinguished from discriminatory
conduct. Libertarians argue that, although discrimination is wrong,
hate speech should be protected because we have a right to express
our ideas. Others reject this distinction, arguing that racist speech and
discriminatory conduct are part of a totality that is incompatible with
equality.
There are many gray areas in the freedom-of-speech debate.
Should calls from telemarketers and spam on the Internet be protected
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speech? What about pornography, or expressions of anti-American
sentiment in times of war, flag burning, or speech that condones
terrorism? Should cults, or mainstream religion for that matter, be
allowed to proselytize on college campuses? The community is even
more deeply divided over the moral permissibility of hate speech.
Hate speech is defined as “epithets conventionally understood to be
insulting references to characteristics such as race, gender, nationality,
ethnicity, religion, and sexual preference.” Should hate speech, which
involves treating another person as a moral inferior, be censured?
Limitations on freedom of speech
Like most liberty rights, freedom of speech is not an absolute right
but is limited by the rights of others to pursue their equal and similar
interests. Freedom of speech does not mean that speech is immune
from any sort of regulation, but that “no expression of opinion ought
to be suppressed because the opinion itself is considered to be false,
heretical, harmful, or subversive.”
Every society places limits on speech in order to prevent violence
and civil disorder as well as to protect its citizens against fraud,
threats, and harassment. Without some rules of order, discussions
would degrade into chaos and frustration on the part of those who
cannot get a word in edgewise. The question of how far these
restrictions should extend is widely debated among ethicists and
policy makers.
Liberals argue that the government does not have a right to protect
citizens from offensive speech; freedom of speech is meaningless if it
does not include the right to offend. On the other hand, censorship can
occur without legal sanctions. The censorship of colleagues and
political opinion can be just as oppressive.
Censorship has traditionally rested on the assumption that people
in authority possess the truth and are able to make final judgments
about what is right and good. Democracy, with its presumption that
the truth is determined by the majority, is not immune from this type
of censorship. During other periods in history, censorship was based
on the assumption that certain positions were self-evidently true.
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People who expressed doubts about these truths were labeled heretics,
foolish, dangerous, or insane. The oppression of great thinkers like
Galileo illustrates how censorship can hold back progress.
Censorship is a normal practice in some parts of the world, such as
China, a country that emphasizes social order over individual
freedom. The United Nations has sought to combat what it regards as
human-rights violations in the international community. The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations in
1948 following World War II as a “common standard of achievement
for all peoples and all nations.” Article 19 of the Declaration states
that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media
and regardless of frontiers.”
The rapid development of the Internet over the past decade has
raised the question of whether the rules surrounding the freedom of
speech that apply to traditional forms of broadcast technology should
apply to Internet speech. Internet technology is distinguished from
traditional broadcast technology in that it is more democratic; anyone
who has access to a computer can “broadcast” information to people
around the world. Because the Internet is so accessible, it has been
hailed as “the great equalizer”, the most participatory form of mass
speech yet developed, and “the best advancement in democracy since
universal suffrage.”
CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS
Look up the following entries in the Dictionary of U. S. Life and
Culture (Жизнь и культура США: Лингвострановедческий
словарь) or other dictionaries and encyclopedias:
mainstream
McCarthyism
to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater
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COMPREHENSION CHECK
1. How do you interpret the phrase: “Freedom of speech is a type
of liberty right”? How can you differentiate between the notions
freedom and liberty?
2. Why is freedom of speech considered to be the heart of
democracy?
3. What forms of verbal expression are considered speech?
4. Are freedom of expression and freedom of speech the same
thing?
5. How is freedom of speech generally distinguished from
discriminatory conduct?
6. What are the gray areas in the freedom-of-speech debate?
7. Why is freedom of speech not an absolute right?
8. Why does every society place limits on speech?
9. What does censorship have to do with freedom of speech?
10. Should the rules surrounding the freedom of speech apply to
traditional forms of broadcast technology only? What about Internet
speech?
11. Why has the Internet been hailed as “the great equalizer”?
ACTIVE VOCABULARY
to promote (v) — 1. to encourage; to help something to develop or
increase: a meeting to promote trade between Taiwan and the U.K.
2. (usu. passive) to give someone a better, more responsible job in
a company. Antonym: to demote 3. to sell; to help sell a new
product, film, etc. by offering it at a reduced price or by advertising
it: She’s in London to promote her new book. 4. to try to persuade
people to support or use something 5. to be responsible for
arranging a large public event such as a concert or a sports game
promotion (n) — 1. a move to a more important job or position in
a company or organization: I want a job with good prospects for
promotion. Your promotion to Senior Editor is now official. 2. an
activity intended to help sell a product, or the product that is being
promoted: a winter sales promotion 3. the activity of persuading
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people to support something: the promotion of energy conservation
4. the activity of helping something to develop or increase: the
promotion of international environmental cooperation
slander (n) — a false spoken statement about someone, intended to
damage the good opinion that people have of that person: He is
being sued for slander .
slanderous (adj): slanderous remarks
rumor (n) about, of, that — information or a story that is passed from
one person to another and which may or may not be true: Rumor
has it that Jean’s getting married again. I’ve heard all sorts of
rumors about him and his secretary. Where did the rumor start?
There’s an unsubstantiated rumor that Eddie’s bankrupt.
a rumor spreads/goes around: A malicious rumor went round
that Philip had something to do with the murder.
the rumor mill — the people, considered as a group, who discuss
something and pass rumors to each other: His name has come up in
the rumor mill as a possible director for the project.
to discriminate (v) — 1. to treat a person or group differently from
another in an unfair way: Under federal law, it is illegal to
discriminate against minorities and women. It was found that the
company still discriminated on the basis of race in promotions.
2. to recognize a difference between things; to differentiate:
Newborn babies can discriminate between a man’s and a woman’s
voice. You should learn to discriminate fact from opinion.
discrimination (n) — 1. the practice of treating one person or
group differently from another in an unfair way: laws to prevent
discrimination; discrimination against; widespread discrimination
against older people in the job market; discrimination in favor of
university graduates; racial/sex/religious, etc. discrimination
2. the ability to recognize the difference between two or more
things, especially the difference in their quality: shape
discrimination
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positive discrimination BrE = affirmative action AmE — the
practice of giving a particular number of jobs, places at university,
etc. to people who are often treated unfairly because of their race,
sex, etc.
reverse discrimination — the practice of giving unfair treatment
to a group of people who usually have advantages, in order to be
fair to the group of people who were unfairly treated in the past
discriminatory (adj) — treating a person or a group of people
differently from other people, in an unfair way: discriminatory
hiring practices
discriminating (adj) — able to judge what is of good quality and
what is not; discerning: a book that will appeal to discriminating
readers
compatible (adj) — able to exist or be used together without causing
problems: The new software is IBM compatible (= can be used
with IBM computers); Stephen’s political views often aren’t
compatible with mine.
Antonym: incompatible (adj): I don’t know why they ever got
married — they’re totally incompatible. Politeness and truth are
often mutually incompatible. Business interests are incompatible
with public office.
compatibility (n): the system’s compatibility with Windows
software; compatibility of flavors; sexual compatibility
conventional (adj) — 1. usual, traditional: Internet connections
through conventional phone lines are fairly slow. 2. (often derog)
following accepted customs and standards, sometimes too closely
and without originality: a strong believer in conventional morals; I
am afraid I am rather conventional in my tastes.
(the) conventional wisdom — the opinion that most people
consider to be normal and right, but that is sometimes shown to be
wrong: As traffic grew, the conventional wisdom was that roads
should be widened to make room.
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conventional medicine — the usual form of medicine practiced in
most European and North American countries. Synonym: western
medicine
censure (n) — the act of expressing strong disapproval and criticism:
a vote of censure
censorship (n) — the practice or system of censoring something: the
censorship of television programs
immune (adj) from — specially protected from something unpleasant:
immune to disease; The senior members of the group appeared to
be immune from arrest.
fraud (n) — 1. the crime of deceiving people in order to gain
something such as money or goods: electoral fraud;
tax/insurance/credit card, etc. fraud. He’s been charged with tax
fraud. She was found guilty of fraud. 2. someone or something that
is not what it is claimed to be: I felt like a fraud. The police
exposed the letter as a fraud.
frustration (n) — 1. the feeling of being annoyed, upset, or impatient,
because one cannot control or change a situation, or achieve
something: People often feel a sense of frustration that they are not
being promoted quickly enough. In spite of his frustrations, he fell
in love with the country. 2. the fact of being prevented from
achieving what one is trying to achieve: The frustration of his
ambitions made him a bitter man.
get a word in edgewise (edgeways) — to get a chance to say
something: Once George starts talking it’s difficult to get a word in
edgeways.
assumption (n) — 1. something that you think is true although you
have no definite proof: A lot of people make the assumption that
poverty only exists in the Third World. My calculations were based
on the assumption that house prices would remain steady. We are
working on the assumption that the conference will take place as
planned. People make a lot of assumptions about me.
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underlying assumption — a belief that is used as the basis for an
idea, but which may not be correct
to make judgments — to form opinions, esp. after thinking carefully
about something: It’s too soon to make a judgment about what the
outcome will be.
label (n) — 1. a piece of paper or another material that is attached to
something and gives information about it: a luggage label 2. a
word or phrase which is used to describe a person, group, or thing,
but which is unfair or not correct: Men these days have to avoid
attracting the ‘sexist’ label. 3. designer label — clothes made by
fashionable companies: Fancy designer labels tend to come with
fancy price tags to match.
to label (v) — 1. to attach a label onto something or write
information on something: Label the diagram clearly. The file was
labeled ‘Top Secret.’ Each bag of seeds is labeled with the
grower’s name. 2. to use a word or phrase to describe someone or
something, but often unfairly or incorrectly: The newspapers had
unjustly labeled him a troublemaker. The regime was inevitably
labeled as ‘communist.’
EXERCISES
I. Explain the following in English:
1. She got a promotion last year.
2. The author was signing copies of his new book as a part of the
publisher’s promotion campaign.
3. A balanced diet promotes good health and normal development.
4. Allen goes from school to school to promote his anti-drug
message.
5. The aim of the meeting is to promote trade between the two
countries.
6. To promote their new shampoo, they are selling it at half price
for a month.
7. The truth can often be slanderous if it is put in certain ways.
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8. Someone’s been spreading nasty rumors about me.
9. I don’t think he’s going to resign. It’s only a rumor.
10. Immigrants faced harassment and discrimination, and were
paid considerably less than their white colleagues.
11. As film audiences get older, they will become more
discriminating.
12. The success of a relationship depends largely on how
compatible two people are and how well they communicate.
13. My parents always seemed incompatible to me, but they
stayed together for over 40 years.
14. These computers are incompatible with our present system.
15. Although expensive, it lasts longer and uses less energy than a
conventional light bulb.
16. Her outrageous stage act is seen as a challenge to conventional
morality.
17. He objects to the sexist label — he doesn’t think he’s sexist at
all.
18. Critics have unfairly labeled Young a racist.
19. The unemployed are often labeled as lazy or unreliable.
II. Translate into Russian paying attention to the active
vocabulary:
1. Civil service tests determine promotion in government jobs.
2. Renee won a year’s supply of chocolate as part of a promotion
for the candy maker.
3. Robbie Williams arrived in New York to do a week of
promotion for his new record.
4. Helen was promoted to senior manager.
5. John Major p
romoted the idea of a classless society.
6. Include workout activities that promote flexibility and strength.
7. Later, he learned that he was being sued for slander.
8. Rumor has it that there will be major job cuts in the new year.
9. The band denied the rumors that they may be splitting up.
10. The truth finally came out after months of rumor and gossip.
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