Free speech

I think the best expression of free speech is not that which is obligatory or prompted. It's that moment when what needs to be said is said, when it needs to be said, not as a gesture, but as a necessity. I wouldn't publish Charlie Hebdo cartoons because I felt obliged, not least because they're tawdry and rubbish, but that does not mean that if I think something needs to be said that I will not say it. If free speech means anything it is the expression of an individuals own thought without fear or obligation. Those who speak through some misguided sense of obligation are caving into the tyranny of collectivism, which is another form of control on speech. Free speech not only means I will speak what I choose to speak, but also when I choose to speak it.