The Addictive Pleasure of Rage and the Value of Being Unreasonable

Jonathan Turley shares 5 key insights from The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.

Do you believe in free speech? Do you really? The right is enshrined in our constitution, but it’s been controversial from the beginning -- with some opinions considered too dangerous to air publicly. But at a time when outrage seems to be the air we breathe, and misinformation the coin of the realm, we need new agreements on the freedom and responsibility of speaking our minds. Here with some guidance is Jonathan Turley, author of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. Jonathan is a law professor at George Washington University, a columnist, television analyst, and litigator. Here he is to share 5 of his big ideas.

1. What is rage?

We are living in an Age of Rage. It permeates every aspect of society and politics. Rage is liberating, even addictive. It allows us to say and do things that we would ordinarily avoid, even denounce in others. Rage is often found at the furthest extreme of reason. For those who agree with the underlying message, it’s righteous and passionate. For those who disagree, it’s dangerous and destabilizing.

Thomas Jefferson would tell James Madison that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing. Rage rhetoric is the ultimate stress test for a system premised on free speech. It is a test that we have often failed, as the rage of dissidents has produced rageful responses from the government. We have a right to rage. It’s rageful acts, not speech alone, that the state should punish. Yet, in any Age of Rage, free speech is often the first victim.

What few today want to admit is that they like the rage.