Is America TOO Free? Azerbaijan, German Free Speech & the Cost of Liberty

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Most of the time when I do these, I offer you some conclusion I've drawn or an

observation I've made for you to consider.

Today I come to you with a question.

Is there such a thing as too much freedom?

I. Let's back up.

I recently had the unique opportunity to visit Baku, the capital city of

Azerbaijan, which for those of you who have never heard that combination

of sounds before, is the name of a country west of the Caspian Sea,

east of Turkey, and Georgia, north of Iran, south of Russia, and the world's

only country to border them both.

It sits on the axis of Old and New East and West, which is one of the

most defining features of its culture.

After a tumultuous history being tossed around by the Persians, Turks and

Russians, Azerbaijan has been independent since the fall of the USSR in 91.

So the modern version is really only like 35 years old and blessed

with plenty of oil and gas.

It is both young and rich.

So Baku really has a new money kind of vibe, A Sparklingly clean

capital city of happy urbanites.

Luxury shopping malls.

Massive futuristic looking skyscrapers, huge manicured parks

lined with gleaming white buildings.

In the French style, sometimes you'd have to remind yourself you weren't

walking down a street in Paris, I swear.

I was in Baku as part of the Jewish Federation's National

Young Leadership Cabinet.

Shout out to Myre, which visits a different international city

each year to witness firsthand how the Federation and its partners

actually support Jewish communities on the ground in the most holistic,

substantial, and meaningful of ways.

Surprisingly, Azerbaijan is home to the largest Jewish population

of any country in the Muslim world.

It is also one of the world's only Muslim majority countries where Islam is not

the official state religion because it is a secular state, proudly so,

and its Jews are seamlessly integrated into society according to literally

everyone we met, not a soul had heard about, witnessed, or experienced

a single anti Jew incident ever.

We actually didn't hear a negative word about the place

from anyone we encountered.

Everyone seemed happy and why wouldn't they be?

They have a globally competitive and regionally strong economy.

Good relationships with both the east and west, including 14

flights a week from Tel Aviv.

There's public health and education and transportation.

It's resource rich, totally devoid of crime and imbued with a sense of

national identity in which the citizens clearly take pride, and there are

security cameras on every corner.

The press is tightly controlled.

Political dissent can get you thrown in jail.

At one point, police forcefully asked our group to move because

we were congregating too long in public, in too large of a group.

Hard to commit crimes when you're being watched all the time and

when you love being where you are and don't wanna screw it up.

Oh, and that national pride I mentioned, the slightly authoritarian government

may have a small part in that.

I have never seen more flags draped on more buildings, including for

some reason the world's biggest flag, which unfurls to around 2,400 square

meters and sits atop the world's tallest flagpole in Baku Flag Square.

I. The first President, Haar Aliev, has his face carved in

stone all over the place and almost everything is named for him.

From the Haar Aliev Cultural Center to the Haar Aliev Airport, to Haar,

aliev Boulevard, and much more.

His son, Ilham, was elected as the second president and his wife, Meum is the vice

president, a position he established for her via constitutional amendment.

So, yeah, that's Baku baby.

Which brings me back to my opening question.

Is there such a thing as too much freedom?

Or rather, how much freedom would you be willing to give up if it meant

you got to live in a society with clean streets, religious tolerance, a

sense of national pride and goodwill towards all and absolutely no crime?

I'm guessing that for some of you, the answer may be absolutely none because

I don't even get enough freedom now.

Which is totally fair, but just go in there for a minute.

For clean math, let's say right now America is a hundred percent

free, would you be willing to knock it down to say 95%?

If it meant a more harmonious society, could you tolerate security cameras if

it meant a significant decrease in crime?

I think I could.

The easiest thing I do every day is not commit a bunch of crimes.

Our phones are listening to us all day anyway.

If you're someone who follows the rules, why should more laws or stricter

enforcement be any cause for your concern, especially if the trade-off

is a greatly enhanced quality of life?

What about freedom of speech, something at the Center of American

discourse on an almost daily basis, the hill that many people I know

would absolutely choose to die on?

And I'm very much looking forward to your responses on this one.

In America, we have what's called absolute free speech.

Yes, there are some exceptions, but they are very rarely and narrowly enforced.

You can say basically anything here and it's completely fine.

You can say, kill all the Jews.

Kill all the blacks.

Kill all the babies.

Kill all the puppies, and no one can do a damn thing.

Do we really need that level of freedom?

Like who benefits from us being able to say that to each other

and don't just kneejerk it.

Think about it.

Is our country truly better off because we're allowed to be absolutely

hateful towards one another at all times with zero legal repercussions.

The argument I often hear is you have to allow them free speech

because one day you are gonna need it or something to that effect.

But like I'm totally okay.

Never saying, I want to kill all the everybodys ever.

Who is the person demanding?

We keep that turn of phrase in the rotation, and why are we letting that

person dictate society for the rest of us?

There are other ways.

Look at Germany for instance.

They enjoy near absolute free speech, but with some caveats that

acknowledge human dignity, democratic protection, and their own dark history.

Nazi symbols and holocaust denial or approval is illegal there.

Why the hell do we need to protect that here?

How in any way is that a freedom that serves the people of the United

States or, but another way, who is that freedom meant to serve?

In Germany groups that call to overthrow the government glorify dictatorships

or extremist propaganda can be banned.

Yeah, they should be.

Why is this so important to allow here?

Who are we protecting?

If the fear is that new limitations or penalties will be abused by the

government, they already are, we gotta be able to do better than this, right?

Here in America, you can express racist, sexist, xenophobic, or

homophobic views no matter how offensive without repercussions.

I ask you to consider why is this a good or necessary thing.

What is the other side of this I'm supposed to be waiting for that makes

it worth allowing unchecked hate to dominate our public discourse.

Finish the sentence for me.

Well, if we ban saying racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic

things, then, then well, what?

I'll be much happier.

Let's bring it back to Baku for a second.

One of my favorite moments there was celebrating Shabbat, which always feels

particularly special when you're in a foreign country singing the same songs

and rituals you do at home, but with folks from a totally different world.

We've talked a lot about the power of Shabbat on this show,

and when you think about it, what is it that makes Shabbat Shabbat?

It's the rules without rules.

There is no Shabbat.

It's just another day I. It is the restrictions that make Shabbat

Shabbat that allow us to be present and engaged and grateful.

It is the constraints that bring the meaning and the magic.

We are so wrapped up in demanding the liberty to do whatever we want at

all times that we're not considering the safety, comfort and order.

A little bit of limitation can bring indeed less freedom to do,

can give you more freedom to be.

Yeah.

Now would I ever wanna live in Baku?

Nah, it's boring as hell.

One thing you can say about America is that we ain't boring.

That's for damn sure.

But once you've been to Azerbaijan, where the air is one of calm and modesty and

fellowship, coming back to an America that is so dismayingly polarized with so much

mistrust and resentment and ingratitude, it's hard not to feel it all more

acutely, which has to make you wonder.

How much freedom is too much freedom?

And would we be better off with just a little bit less?

Feel free to let me know what you think.

I certainly can't do anything to stop you.