Freedom of speech deserves an unconditional YES

Alain Finkielkraut, a contemporary French philosopher, writes in Le Figaro from November 27 on the absolute necessity of defending freedom of speech, unconditionally, against all the vile efforts to restrict it which are currently fomenting, especially in fundamentalistic Islamistic circles, but also among some Westerners without the guts to stand up for what is important.

Follow this link to the full article, dealing with the reluctance of some French writers to support one of their colleagues who, after speaking out against attempted Islamistic restrictions on freedom of speech, received death threats and was dismissed from his university chair.

Here, one trenchant excerpt:

La liberté d'expression n'est pas une sinécure. Ce droit de l'homme n'est pas seulement mon droit. L'homme, c'est moi, mais ce n'est pas que moi. L'homme, c'est aussi les autres hommes et leur droit insupportable de dire des choses que je n'ai pas envie d'entendre, des choses qui m'énervent, qui m'effraient, qui me blessent, qui m'accablent, qui m'écorchent vif, qui me font mal. Dans une société ouverte, aucune conviction n'est souveraine, ce qui fait qu'elles sont toutes en colère.

Roughly and quickly anglicized, I would put it thusly:

Freedom of expression is no easy task. This human right is not merely my right. The human is me, but not just me. The human is also all those other humans and their unbearable right to say things I don't want to here, things that bother me, frighten me, wound me, overwhelm me, skin me alive, hurt me. In an open society, no conviction is sovereign, which is why they are all so angry.