In our current age, where everyone’s opinions can be posted, shared, and ultimately
dissected by others. Freedom of expression feels both equally available and fragile to us.
The question of what it truly means to be able to ‘speak freely’ is not just a philosophical
debate that the ancient Greeks pondered; it is now an everyday balance of individuality,
responsibility and modern discourse.
Through a generous invitation by Her Campus, I and another member were recently invited
to the Nottingham Playhouse to enjoy the opening night of Eureka Day, for which other
Chapter Member Susie Dale has done a spectacular review that you should check out.
Jonathan Spector captures this dilemma perfectly. Set at the school board of a liberal
Californian school, we witness their attempt at inclusivity and hearing everyone’s opinion.
The climax of this story becomes a heated topic of debate surrounding the need to review
their vaccination policy. It’s a direct mirror of our current world, where everyone wants to be
heard and no one wants to offend.
The Everyday Value of Free Expression
Freedom of expression is everywhere; it isnât limited to just political rallies or protests â we
see it woven into what we post online, opinions we share with our friends and the silence we
keep to avoid conflicts. Social media has become the amplifier and mute button of voices.
We claim to live in an era of open dialogue, yet there is always the risk of saying âthe wrong
thingâ. Cancel culture, born from accountability, sometimes has the potential to feel like the
modern equivalent of the guillotine for free thought. Are individuals free to express
themselves? Is freedom of opinion inherently free?
Eureka Day can mirror this tension in an everyday setting, where characters tiptoe around
sensitive topics such as race, religion and science. There is an apparent fear of upsetting
and overstepping, no character having a clear opinion until the very end, tentative to their
core. These characters represent a society that is overthinking itself into paralysis. The fear
of offending shadows the value of dialogue and opinion.
Freedom vs. Responsibility
Freedom of expression continues to be an ethical issue. Does the right to speak mean that
those who have the right to speak are without consequence? Can an individual insult
another under free speech and be expected to see no uproar?
The digital age has played a role in blurring these lines, with misinformation spread daily and
a lack of consideration to fact-check. The anti-vaccination debate in Eureka Day exposes
this fragility. Characters are becoming insistent on the idea that âall points are valid,â even if
they oppose factual debates seen in science and research. This modern morality â this idea
that every opinion deserves equal weight, thought and consideration â minimises
responsibility. Free speech without critical thinking very quickly becomes words, not facts.
Our online spaces are a direct reflection of this hypocrisy. Hate speech has been on the rise
behind the cover of âfree expressionâ, with outrage seen all the way to our politicians on
censorship. The truth of the matter is that speech gains value when paired with
accountability and information. Freedom, as an idea, does not equate to freedom to harm; it
is the idea of informing and empathising.
Eureka Day acts as a stark reminder of this: that personal experience does not always lead
to universal truth.
However, just as seen in Eureka Day, there is no neat solution to how freedom of speech
should be used by everyone. Instead, as the play portrays it, humans are fallible. We
continually go round in circles, wanting to be right, yet also kind and at the same time heard.
In doing so, we often misunderstand and misdirect others. Freedom of expression is not
about speaking without consequence, but perhaps we also need to learn to think beyond our
own human desires to understand how words shape communities and individuals.