評論
打印
It is not true that liberty has developed among civilized men when anyone is free to set up a soapbox, is free to hire a hall where he may expound his opinions to those who are willing to listen. On the contrary, freedom of speech is established to achieve its essential purpose only when different opinions are expounded in the same hall to the same audience.
人人可以自由建立臨時演講臺，可以自由租用一個大廳以便向愿意傾聽的那些人闡述自己的意見，這并不真正表明自由已經(jīng)在文明人中間得到發(fā)展。相反，只有在同一個大廳向同一批聽眾闡述不同的意見，這時才能說確立言論自由達(dá)到了它的根本目的。
For, while the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes the right important. Even in Russia and Germany a man may still stand in an open field and speak his mind. What matters is not the utterance of opinions. What matters is the confrontation of opinions in debate. No man can care profoundly that every fool should say what he likes. Nothing has been accomplished if the wisest man proclaims his wisdom in the middle of the Sahara Desert. This is the shadow. We have the substance of liberty when the fool is compelled to listen to the wise man and learn; when the wise man is compelled to take account of tiie fool, and to instruct him; when the wise man can increase his wisdom by hearing the judgment of his peers.
因為，盡管說話的權(quán)利可能是自由的開端，然而傾聽的必要性才使得這種權(quán)利變得重要。即使在俄羅斯和德國，一個人也可以站在曠野里傾吐心聲。關(guān)鍵并不在于表達(dá)意見，在于爭論中各種意見的交鋒。愚者個個想說什么就說什么，沒有人會去肖真留意。最聰明的人在撒哈拉大沙漠中發(fā)表真知灼見的話，不會產(chǎn)生任何效果。這是虛幻的自由。愚者被迫傾聽智者意見而且向他們學(xué)習(xí)，智者被迫考慮到愚者并且予以指教，智者依靠聽取其他前輩的判斷而增長智慧，那時我們才懂得自由的實質(zhì)。
That is why civilized men must cherish liberty—as a means of promoting the discovery of truth. So we must not fix our whole attention on the right of anyone to hire his own hall, to rent his own broadcasting station, to distribute his own pamphlets. These rights are incidental; and though they must be preserved, they can be preserved only, by regarding them as incidental, as auxiliary to the substance of liberty that must be cherished and cultivated.
這就是文明人必須珍惜自由的道理一它是一種有助于發(fā)現(xiàn)真理的手段。所以我們不可把自己的全部注意力集中于下述權(quán)利：人人可以租用自己的大廳、租借自己的廣播電臺、散發(fā)自己的小冊子。這些權(quán)利是附帶性的，盡管必須予以保護(hù)，但是只有作為附帶性的、作為必須珍惜和培養(yǎng)的自由的實質(zhì)的附屬品才能予以保護(hù)。
Freedom of speech is best conceived, therefore, by having in mind the picture of a place like the American Congress, an assembly where opposing views are represented, where ideas are not merely uttered but debated, or the British Parliament, where men who are free to speak are also compelled to answer. We may picture the true condition of freedom as existing in a place like a court of law, where witnesses testify and are cross-examined, where the lawyer argues against the opposing lawyer before the same judge and in the presence of one jury.
因此，最好這樣來設(shè)想言論自由：頭腦中出現(xiàn)美國國會這么個場所的情景，這是對立觀點得以陳述的匯集處，各種思想不僅可以表達(dá)而且可以爭論；或是想象英國議會，自由發(fā)言的議員也被迫作答。我們可以設(shè)想，自由的真實狀態(tài)存在于法庭那樣的地方，見證人作證并受到盤問，雙方律師在同一位法官和同一個陪審團(tuán)面前展開唇槍舌劍。
