Unrestricted freedom of speech gives power to the enemies of the system, Kateřina Šimáčková, a judge at the European Court of Human Rights, said some time ago.
But it also says a lot about the system. One of the key features of the previous system, the democratic industrial nation states established after the Second World War, was that it was open to unlimited criticism. That it has to be defended all the time. From criticism from the right that it is too “socialist” and from criticism from the left that it is too reckless or too consumerist. The system has had to withstand criticism from the Communist parties, and every four years it has had to prove that it can offer people more than the Communists.
The system of Ursula von Leyen and Katerina Šimáček is not open to criticism. There is no need to prove anything to the people. There is no need to seek their approval. There is no need to be interested in their opinions. The state has sufficient means of intimidation, and that is enough.
For people like the author of this blog, it is annoying. While I am neither a racist nor a conspiracy theorist nor a supporter of Russia, I am most certainly an enemy of the current political-economic system, and I subscribe to that. So it’s only a matter of time before it comes to me as well – unless a major political change comes. However, thanks to inertia from the previous regime, there is still some freedom of expression, and I enjoy it.
Let’s be glad for every day and every week when we can live a somewhat normal life and hope that the processes towards systemic change will be fast enough (especially if we support them a little).