Though the Soviet Union is long gone, Sir Winston Churchill would be just as frightened. And while President Reagan made certain that the Reds would never again pose a serious challenge to liberty abroad, a new disease has begun to spread across Europe-a disease far subtler and consequently far more devious. I refer not to the socialism that has seized control of Western Europe or to the vast influx of immigrants who refuse to assimilate into a foreign land. The iron curtain of which I speak is something quite familiar to us at Brown University - political correctness.
In 1947, in the wake of World War II and the plethora of revelations that surfaced regarding Nazi atrocities committed at concentration camps throughout central and eastern Europe, the Austrian government enacted a form of legislation known as the Verbotsgesetz. Verbotsgesetz criminalizes any person who denies or trivializes the Holocaust. The most famous example of the law's enforcement occurred in November 2005, when David Irving, a British author and revisionist historian, was arrested for Holocaust denial.
Speaking of revisionist historians, will Howard Zinn be locked up anytime soon?
Jokes aside, I do not honestly want Zinn to be arrested. While I may not agree with him, he offers a fresh perspective. For the same reasons, Irving should not have been arrested.
Criminalizing historical opinions, irrespective of their acceptance among the greater academic community and their propensity to offend, is a deplorable form of modern tyranny. What really disgusts me is the fact that Irving was actually sentenced to three years in prison for his denial - even though he was deported from Austria under probation on Dec. 21, 2006 and forbidden to return. Ironically, this very same sort of censorship and government restriction was commonplace under Nazi rule. The Austrian government might as well have arrested Irving in the middle of the night and ordered his papers and books burned.
Examples of similar laws abound across Europe. In Germany, it is criminal to spread neo-Nazi propaganda and to display Nazi symbols, such as the swastika. For instance, the German rock group Landser ("foot soldiers") was found guilty of spreading anti-Jewish and anti-foreign rhetoric in 2003; its leader, Michael Regener, was imprisoned after losing several appeals in 2005, and is currently serving a term of over three years. The German government has officially outlawed the rock band.
Outlawed. Let the ridiculousness of these measures sink in. Instead of confronting the despicable hatred espoused by this band, and exposing its fallacies through truth and reason, the German government decided to ban it. It almost seems as if they are incapable of discrediting Nazism except through force. In this context, it is ironic that many contemporary Germans accuse America of being "fascist."
In France, the situation is just as disappointing. The French are notorious for taking things beyond reasonable limits, from the Divine Right of kings to the violence of the French Revolution to their current censorship laws. In March 2004 the French Parliament, with the unbridled support of Herr Chirac, passed legislation that banned all people from donning "ostensible" religious articles in public schools. Christians cannot wear large crosses; Jews cannot wear kippahs; and Muslim women cannot wear veils. Presumably, every Frenchman can still wear a white flag.
In addition to the assault on the rights of the religious, the French have passed a law that criminalizes the denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey. Passed in Oct. 2006, this law imposes a fine of up to € 45,000 (approximately $60,000) and up to one year in prison for voicing denial of the genocide.
Recall that once upon a time, in 1749, the French authorities imprisoned the philosopher Denis Diderot because his ideas did not conform to the Crown and the Church. Now, dissenters in France are imprisoned because their ideas do not conform to politically correct secularism. History does indeed repeat itself. Maybe after another invasion the French will finally get their act together - assuming that we even bother to save them, again.
Such government actions are disgraceful, as they usurp one of the most basic rights in a civil society - freedom of speech and opinion without fear of reprisal. These freedoms, and the ensuing clash of ideas, are paramount for the emergence of truth, and thus essential for any thriving civil society.
In his inaugural address of 1801, President Thomas Jefferson had this insight to offer on the tolerance of controversial opinions:
"[E]rror of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."
In contemporary Europe, such wisdom falls on deaf ears. Why must offensive symbols and ideologies be banned? Must the Austrian and German governments resort to censorship in order to prove that Holocaust denial and Nazi ideology are erroneous? Must the French government criminalize the denial of a historical genocide? And is it truly so offensive to see the religious wearing signs of their faith that those too must be criminalized?
Government repression is creeping across Europe; an iron curtain of censorship legislation is slowly being erected.
Alas, it seems Europeans have forgotten that true political liberty encompasses all people and all beliefs. Safeguards for free speech and opinion are meant precisely for the ideas and people that we find most offensive.
