Free2choose

My friend and I capped off the end of last semester with a weekend rendezvous in Amsterdam. As we finished up our tour of the Anne Frank Museum, we noticed a film presentation going on called Free2choose. Intrigued, we took some seats, which were equipped with little clickers. The film would show a short clip highlighting an incident where human rights and freedoms come into conflict with one another. For example, every year in Northern Ireland, the Orange Order has parades to celebrate Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Sometimes the marches go through Catholic neighborhoods. Opponents of this say that this is triumphalist and generally in poor taste given the history of Protestant-Catholic relations. On several occasions, violence has erupted as a result of tensions.

After the issue is presented, the screen asks the audience whether or not this should be allowed: should the Orange marches be allowed to go through Catholic neighborhoods? You respond on your clicker, and then the audience results show. Sometimes it was really hard to answer, but that also made some of the results all the more interesting.

I did get frutrated, however, with some the wording of the questions: should this be done vs. should the government let this be done? Because of course there are many things I do not think should be done, but it is another question entirely whether or not the government should play a role in answering that question. Sometimes it was not clear what was meant.

I also got a pamphlet highlighting some of the main themes. I think some of the quotes in here are interesting:

"Each person's freedom ends where another person's freedom begins."
-Proverb

"There are people who think that the right to ingratitude is the most important freedom."
-H. Poincare, French mathematician

"A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights."
-Napolean Bonaparte, French statesman and dictator

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them."
-Mark Twain, American author

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free."
-Charles Evans Hughes, American Supreme Court Justice

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedomm of thought which they seldom use."
-Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-H.L. Menckn, American journalist

"Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a pooping tom to install your window blinds."
-John Perry Barlow, American singer and poet

"A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad...Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better."
-Albert Camus, French author

"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. to sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it."
-Germaine Greer, Australian writer and activist

"It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting."
-Tom Stoppard, English playwright

Very enjoyable presentation, and according to the pamphlet, it has been financed with support from the European Commission to be presented in more European cities. So if you are traveling in Europe, keep an eye open!