The Promotion of Innovation

The seventh value of freedom of expression speaks out to me as particularly important because of its role in my everyday life. The freedom to promote innovation actively encourages creativity and creation in a society. 

As a Game Design major and someone who enjoys art and reading, this freedom affects me every day. The most stark contrast to this freedom that I’ve witnessed is the censorship laws, particularly enforced by countries like China. I’ve personally read books where topics like dissent among the people, rebellion in countries, and mentions of the dead are censored because of these laws. Most books I’ve read have at least one topic that needs to be alluded to by the author or metaphorically referred to because of censorship. I have books published in Singapore written by authors who can’t publish in their own countries, and movies like Pixar’s Coco have to have special permission to be aired. In the United States, we have guidelines and warnings for what can be aired, but we have so much freedom that reading through censorship like I have or hearing about it truly makes me appreciate this freedom all the more. 

It isn’t until you lose something that you realize you had it in the first place. Resources like Google, Gmail, and YouTube are banned in censored countries like China. It’s truly no wonder that America is the leading global entertainment hub in the world.

Jack Balkin describes in ‘Living Originalism’ that “ Successful social and political mobilization changes political culture, which changes constitutional culture, which in turn changes constitutional practices outside of the courts and constitutional doctrine within them.”(18) Balkin does a wonderful job describing that, aside from a more casual influence, the promotion of innovation is also the basis for social movements, leading to structures that a political party would create for its regimes and the nexus of judicial constructions.

I find news of authors arrested after their books are published and finding themselves with felony charges for writing a book, a book that had gone through multiple individuals' and regulations, only to still be criminalized because of the lack of freedom of expression. Movies like Back to the Future and James Cameron’s Avatar are banned at the whim of a select group of individuals controlled by an even more select group of elite politicians. 

Focusing on China and its stark contrast to the United States is fascinating in the differences both types of societies have. One of these contrasts would be how stark copyright infringement is in China. One of the reasons why piracy is so huge overseas is the lack of protection afforded to creators, with the basis of its regulatory actions made in an effort to defend its government rather than its people. It is hardly any wonder that so many creators export to countries with freer regulatory actions.

It is through my own personal experience as an artist, reader, and avid pursuer of the creation of media that allows me to appreciate the protection that the First Amendment supplies to the people of America.