This critical right -- the right to petition the Crown, the right to protest peacefully -- is the root of virtually all other civil rights. Arguably, both negative and positive liberty, in the Berlin sense, rest on the right to peaceful protest.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
4 comments:
Why do you keep babbling about Isaiah Berlin? His Two Concepts of Liberty is incoherent at best or, perhaps, is an insidious attempt to justify non-democratic rule provided only it has some room for basic human dignity. He is a grossly overrated philospher like his accolyte Ignatieff
Overrated? No, I think not. But I do agree that Two Concepts does not, to my mind, require that a "free" country be a democracy. And there is logic there although experience suggests otherwise. A tyrant may allow basic liberties and a democracy crush the spirit by majority prejudice (look to gay rights). That said, broadly put democracy seems to be consistent with political freedom and Berlin agrees with that. It is not a logical necessity but it is a fact of life. Having said that, remember in Two Concepts Berlin was considering Stalin and Hitler both of whom purported to bring true freedom and real democracy. That's where the issue of "positive" liberty and the misuse of the concept of freedom and liberty came into play. It may be that Two Concepts is no longer a central text because our battles are no longer related to issues of what is "democracy" but rather relate to culture and how to maintain basic human rights within a system open to the continuation of cultural diversity. Some say the circle cannot be squared and others say it can -- but 'social democracy' and 'national socialism' are not in play.
Unfortunately, the right to peaceful protest is completely irrelevant if the Crown has no obligation to pay attention to them. The Tamil protests proved that, in Canada, illegal and disruptive protests are infinitely more effective than peaceful protests.
Brent, touche!!! Cheers james
Post a Comment