Who Needs Free Speech?!

Art is essentially about communication, and every artist knows how vitally important it is to be able to freely express oneself. Artists historically have run afoul of conformity and conservatism, with “shocking” new artworks usually provoking condemnation and censorship. In the United States, the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech, a right that surely every American artist must cherish. Yet, a scandalous new study on the attitudes of US teens reveals enmity to the Constitution. The study discloses that more than one in three high school students surveyed said the First Amendment goes “too far” in guaranteeing freedoms. Only half of those surveyed believed newspapers should be allowed to freely publish stories without government interference, and no more than 83 percent believed US citizens had a right to express unpopular views. Three out of four students said they didn’t even know how they felt about the First Amendment. Those artists with nothing to say, or who think themselves above political matters, should fit in well with this new American vision.