This week I had the chance to attend an interesting and almost "strange" two-days, international conference. The major discussion was about the hate speech and the liberty of expression. I enjoyed the sessions even though this is neither my field of studies nor my professional background. But since social media have intervened so much into our lifestyle, i suppose that this is nowadays everyone's field and background. You see, there is no one around us without a single social media account. I have almost 30 and I am using them depending on my mood. If i assume that everyone else is doing the same, i expect to detect some hate speech and too much liberty of expression.
Considering that our world has become more advanced and globalized hate of speech seems to be more of a left over. But no. This is not the case. Hate speech is everywhere around us. In our everyday life, shopping or hopping on a bus, watching a tv show or reading a newspaper, talking to a stranger or talking to a loved one. But i started wondering...Where has the love speech gone?
Are we really so busy of finding some minutes to express ourselves or we have just forgotten how to talk to each other? Are we incapable of talking with kindness to other human beings or it is just a phase where symbols and emoticons do the job? Why did we became so vulgar?What changes so significantly within us that we cannot talk freely to the people we used to share our deepest thoughts with? Is it the perception we have about them or the perception they have about us that shifts our speech from the one side to the other? And if it is none of the above, will we ever be able to speak to each other freely again?
Mind the gaps: liberty of expression does not mean absolute truth or honesty. Love speech is not always based on feelings of love too.
A.