Yelling in a Crowded Theater
Posted by Doug Rice on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 @ 09:33 AM
Technorati 2yuabd4vmg
One of the most well known limits to our freedom is that while there is freedom of speech, if there isn't a fire, it's illegal to yell fire in a crowded theater. Why? Because the result of such and action would have serious consequences as people might get hurt trying to evacuate.That speech is dangerous and false, hence the problem with it.
When the financial crisis happened a year ago, despite attempts to manage the message, everyone heard that we could be headed to the next great depression. What's worse is that they heard it all at once. This effectively sent everyone running for the fire exits and a lot of people got financially crushed in the process.
In this case, there actually was a fire. We actually were on the verge of a serious calamity and, while leaders did try to avoid acting panicked in public, it was pretty clear that there were serious problems and keeping your own money safe became everyones priority. The speech during that time might have been dangerous, but it wasn't false. The fire was real.
But if we look back at the start of the fire, when investors were buying homes that they couldn't afford, especially the speculators that knew they were just trying to profit from a bubble, who was yelling then and why isn't that illegal?
If speech is limited to not being dangerous and false, then why isn't speech that promotes bubbles and investing in schemes that are eventually going to collapse illegal? Isn't that speech dangerous and false? Yelling fire in a crowded theater can hurt people. Yelling BUY, BUY, BUY, in a crowded market place can hurt people too.
Sadly, I fear the difference is that no makes a profit off of yelling in a crowded theater.