The Eight Values Of Expression

Here, multiple people hold up signs with the First Amendment freedoms.

The Eight Values of Free Expression

The eight values of expression are extremely important in both the functioning of the government via regulation and the fairness and rights of the individual, specifically in their expression of what they believe is right. It simply gives more detail and strengthens the First Amendment by detailing eight new freedoms theorized by eight different people that cover things ranging from protecting the dissent of citizens to protecting innovation and creativity. This is all done in an attempt to create a better society and government by prioritizing civilians' rights to criticize, express themselves, and believe whatever they want. 

Here, hands hold up devices of expression with text.

All of these values are key in the functioning of society, but they each carry a specific meaning that needs to be made apparent to fully understand how they affect the government and us as civilians, and how they work together. One very important value that I believe is crucial to me is Individual Self-Fulfillment, which is the belief that these freedoms, like speech and expression, allow individuals to create their own identities, which, in my opinion, is one of the most crucial parts of any society. I attributed this to me specifically, as I believe that everyone, to a certain extent, should be able to express themselves how they want and believe what they want to believe. Not expressing this belief in a society just leads to arguments and overall negativity.

Even though Individual Self-Fulfillment is very important, the most important value, and the one that we need to keep in action today as much as possible, is Check on Government Power. This belief builds on the First Amendment right of free press, by allowing us citizens to voice concerns and spread awareness to others about devious or wrong actions taking place within the government. This is necessary because, if the government had complete control over all of their decisions in the sense that they censored the general public voicing concerns, it would cause a sense of autonomy where citizens just couldn't do anything about it, like they can now when they vote. 

This can be seen today through all of the strange new renaming of places, and the president's addiction to striking down Iran. Of course, most of the general public dislikes this, so it's beneficial that they have the power to speak this way about it and then be able to reflect these ideals through their vote.

An example of a peaceful protest.

Another very crucial value is the idea of Stable Change, which, similar to the other values, gives civilians the ability to voice anger and what's on their mind surrounding governmental happenings. It goes on to explain that this helps civilians not use crime or any other forms of aggression as an outlet for their anger, but allows them to "vent" instead. This can be seen through things like peaceful protests. 

This also helps the government, as the definition also mentions that it allows them to see ideologies or groups that could prove to be potentially threatening or aggressive. This idea also helps society in major ways, as almost anyone who is angry and is allowed a chance to vent usually "cools down" fairly quickly.

One other value that we see a lot in today's society is the idea of promoting tolerance. This is the idea that hate speech, to an extent, must be tolerated in a society to make it more tolerant in other places. It has to be allowed so society can see why the speech is considered hate speech and figure out the complaints in society. This can be seen today a lot through social media, as platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have seemingly supported the idea, as they don't really regulate the platform very much, so all kinds of things are said by all kinds of different people. 

In conclusion, all of these values are very important and need to be utilized to properly exercise our First Amendment rights. The ability to express political opinions to others, so you will be able to properly know what you are voting for, the ability to express yourself and hold any belief you want to hold, and many more are all crucial points that are easy to see being used daily in society. This expansion of our rights as U.S citizens is one of, if not the most important aspect of our overall freedom and expression.

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