One of the most famous lines of historical literature, and of life, was spoken by Shakespeare’s Hamlet as he sought to avenge the murder of his father by his uncle. Claudius wanted power and what better way to get it than to dispose of his brother and marry his widow.
It is an age-old proposition for those seeking power. The state murders our right to think and speak freely, so that it can assume the role of omnipotent overlord.
Australia is staring down the barrel of the state’s loaded gun of censorship; of its unbridled passion to control what we can think, speak, and write. While the country awaits the full implication of impending Misinformation laws, the New South Wales parliament was recently presented with a Bill to enshrine free speech into its constitution.
Without the all-knowing omnipotent government watching and controlling all that we do.
John Ruddick, Member of the Legislative Council, New South Wales, moved a Bill in November 2023 to amend the state’s constitution to protect free speech. On March 20, 2024 he spoke to the bill, the Constitution Amendment (Rights and Freedoms) Bill 2023, stating the aim was to restrict the power of the New South Wales parliament ‘to prohibit the citizens of New South Wales of having open expression.’
Referring to the boldness of the American Constitution that gave rise to many nations basing their own upon that same document, he went on to highlight that the first amendment to the American Constitution is free speech. But that concept dates back much earlier than 1791 when the First Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted.
Ancient Greece is our model. It owns the claim to the idea of demokratia – democracy as we know it today. Its function was premised upon the concept of direct selection, something that bloated modern democratic leadership delight in telling us is not possible in our modern world due to sheer size of populations. But that is a topic for another time.
Australia is staring down the barrel of the state’s loaded gun of censorship; of its unbridled passion to control what we can think, speak, and write.
Demokratia means rule (kratos) of the people (demos). The fundamental idea of it was a broad concept of liberty: the public capacity to participate in public affairs, and private capacity to conduct one’s life as considered best.
We have strayed so far from that basic principle that it is almost incomprehensible to think we might recover such ancient wisdom as living by one’s own standard, without the all-knowing omnipotent government watching and controlling all that we do.
Needless to say, the bill did not pass. I often ask myself what the ancients would think of how we have manipulated for our own ends what they devised as being best for citizens.
So let us channel Shakespeare and, like Hamlet, ask the question:
‘To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ‘t is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them!’
It is not just boldness that requires such an avenging act, but it is our moral duty to do so – ideally within the bounds of the law!
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Gerardine is a Roman historian, with specific interest in Rome’s foundation up to the end of the Republic. She advocates that history gifts us with wisdom for the mind and nourishment for the soul, and keenly defends the ancients’ legacy of civic society, law, and government.
