Well, it isn’t, free I mean. Like lunch and love, there is always a cost. You must have noticed that billionaires and mega-millionaires, especially the celebrity types, have great influence on public policy. We see them on television news, in the newspapers, and hear them on the radio. No secret that money buys influence.
Luminaries may have no other qualifications beyond a fat bank account and name familiarity, yet those ingredients alone will buy a bully pulpit, a public relations staff, lawyers, and strategists to engineer some sort of advocacy.
Some recent examples: what does a slum lord, thirty-something, wheeler and dealer (Kushner) know about international diplomatic negotiations? What qualifies a NBA basketball owner (Cuban) to suggest that he would make a good running mate for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election? More, what gives Bill Gates the wisdom to shape and recommend changes in our educational system? Does The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) believe his CV, which includes pro wrestling and acting in godawful movies, think he can muscle his way to stations of national primacy simply because he is a tough guy with an oiled body and lots of tattoos? Sorry, I do not mean to blow an air horn in a sacred place. But what qualifies Trump, the village idiot, to any lofty position? Added up, the voices we hear most often offer not much more than barking dogs do. Amazingly, we, the hoi polloi, must listen to these familiars because they dominate the media. They crowd the speakers’ platforms, and they demand our attention in the same way that the bearded lady catches our interest at a sideshow.
I am a fan of the 1st Amendment in theory, but in the arena of politics and influence in our culture I realize that speech and authority go to the rich and bloated. In other words, money talks and celebrated status opens locked doors posted “keep out” for the rest of us. Regular folks, listen. The owner of the kitchen gets to bake while we wait around for the crumbs.
Sure, I speak my mind at the wine bar or in a letter to the editor, but my influence, if I have any, does little more than amuse my neighbors. Perhaps I have nothing much to offer, but if I did it would make little difference because I don’t have the chops (as a musician might say).
If I had a few extra thousand dollars, I might rent a billboard and declare almost anything at all within reason. Without that money or inside pull, I can stand beneath the billboard and shout my lungs out. Which communication strategy do you think most effective? Point is, free speech is, as we witness every day, most effective to those who shoulder their way to the front of the audience.
Perhaps this has been the way of civilization for centuries, no matter the political system or culture. The rich and powerful purchase the word. They control the conversation. If you stand up at the back of the auditorium and disagree with the speaker, hired security will remove you from the premises, maybe even arrest you for interfering with free speech.
Free speech—we know—is not free.