Russell Blackford - The Tyranny Of Opinion (Bloomsbury, 2019) ***

Russel Blackford is professor of philosophy at the University of Newcastle in Australia. In "The Tyranny Of Opinion" he gives an overview of the boundaries between free speech and harmful comments on others. His angle of attack are the writings of John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty'. It is a scholarly book, possibly too scholarly, in the sense that - like a true university professor - he gives an overview of the existing literature on the topic, giving a lot of opinions from other scholars, giving an overview on the current debate instead of giving a frame of reference for the reader to identify where the limits are. He describes the issue, but does not give a sense of direction of how to address it. 

The topic is possibly one of the most important ones to tackle in our times of social media, war propaganda, nationalism and populism. 

Maybe my expectations were too high, or rather, what I expected to learn from the book is not actually in the book itself: a simple framework to identify the boundaries of free speech. As it stands, many of the situations he describes are so familiar that most people who follow current events or are active on social media are aware of: intimidation, self-censorship, conformtiy, harassment, hate speech, religious sensitivities, quenching debate, blasphemy, etc. You would wish a scholar such as Blackford would indicate a clearer line than he does in the book. In the end, it all depends on an assessment of the situation itself (but by which criteria?), with considerations of respect and good taste. He comes with the recommendation for more self-interrogation among liberals, but fails to come with recommendations for society as a whole. 

Would the best policy not be to organise open debates in which all opinions are welcomed and discussed, regardless of their nature? How can this be done on mainstream media and social media? Which role can education play? How can universities become havens of public discussion on new ideas? What can legislators do (for instance: even in most democratic societies, blasphemy is still a criminal offence)?

What was a grey zone before has remained vague after reading Blackford's book.