The Most Successful Nation in the History of the World

Every free society guarantees freedom of speech and expression.  But in many cases the guarantees given by the state, usually wrapped up in fine constitutional rhetoric, have often been tragically meaningless. 

In England free expression has not been a privilege given by a government to the people.  Ordinary people have struggled to acquire and retain it.  It is claimed that this freedom goes back into the mists of time.  An Englishman can claim to be born with freedom of speech which no Act of Parliament can remove.  Magna Carta enshrines general liberties in law. 

John Milton wrote in ‘Areopagitica’ his appeal to freedom of expression,

“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties’. 

His was a commitment to truth and the need for freedom to utter it, made at a time when the state licensed all publishing.  His writings contributed to this freedom in England, such as the famous quote also from ‘Areopagitica’,

“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength.  Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter?”